Getafe are pretty much up in the air at the moment. On Thursday night they got a great three goals to one victory over Racing de Santander in the first leg of the King’s cup Semi final, and in the UEFA cup they are also doing very well, too. They have qualified for the last sixteen after knocking out Greek side AEK Athens, and now they face Portuguese outfit Benfica at the beginning of March. To top off a great month for Getafe, they beat city rivals Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the league last weekend. Ruben de la Red and Estaban Granero both had to sit out the Real Madrid game as they are on loan from the Spanish giants and weren’t allowed to play owing to a clause in their loan contracts. Much good that it did Real, who lost for the first time in the league at home for more than a year.
Getafe now need to set their sights on Mallorca, as this will be another hugely difficult game for the modest north Madrid side, who have surprised many people this season for still being in all three competitions. Whether they can carry on this great form is anyone’s guess, but what they have to do now is to concentrate on their league position. Currently they are tenth in the table, but defeat here will certainly see them drop a place as Mallorca are just two points behind them on thirty one points, and them Mallorca come five more teams all on twenty nine points.
Gregorio Manazano’s Mallorca is having an up and down season. The side is quite capable of pulling off some quite frankly amazing results, but they always seem to have problems with the smaller teams. They have gone seven games without losing a match, but before you think they are in great form, they have won only once in those seven. Six draws has seen them drop a little in the table when they should really be fighting for a UEFA cup place. Now though, the squad’s main impetus is avoiding the relegation battle, and seeing as there are only three points separating them from a relegation spot, they need this win.
The only problem with Getafe is that they must by now have some seriously tired legs after competing so much recently. I’m going for a Mallorca win here, mainly because they need the points a lot more than Getafe, who should rest a couple of players before the Benfica game.
Prediction: Away win (1-2)

Racing de Santander go into this match knowing how important the three points on offer are for their UEFA cup hopes. The Cantabrian side are currently in seven place but are just one point from Espanyol who currently occupy the sixth and last UEFA cup spot. Amazingly enough, if after their not so good league form, Racing find themselves three points from a Champions league place, but that I think will be a bit out of their reach. Form wise, they lost the first leg of the King’s cup semi final to Getafe on Thursday by three goals to one, so the return leg is going to be very important to them. In the league Racing have lost just once in the last five games, but then again they have only won one, which was the one goal to nothing victory t home to Almeria last weekend.
Valladolid haven’t allowed that disasterous seven nil demolition they had to endure against Real Madrid affect their morale a couple of weeks ago. Since that ill fated day, Valladolid went on to draw at home to Mallorca and last weekend they beat Murcia away, which let them shoot up the table from sixteenth to eleventh. They are now in quite a comfortable zone, but shouldn’t get too relaxed as relegation placed Deportivo are only four points away.

Neither squad has any real injury worries at the moment, especially Racing, who only a couple of weeks ago were clean out of strikers. I will expect the Cantabrian side to make an early attacking start, using all the artillery that they possess, especially ex-Real Madrid forward Pedro Munitis and Burundi international Tchite. I’m going for an away win here, as I don’t think Valladolid will be able to stop Racing from scoring, and the La Liga new comers are not that good at coming back from behind.
Prediction: Away win (0-2)

It would be nice if someone could explain Espanyol’s drop in form, because I am at a loss to understand it. Earlier on in the season they were doing phenomenally well, even to the point of going fourteen league games without a defeat, but since then they have lost six matches from the last seven, dropping eighteen points from the twenty one on offer. Such a change in form can be explain be their injury worries –most notably that of Raul Tamudo who is still out with a broken arm- but not completely. They have allowed some quite clear cut chances slip through their fingers, like the away defeat to Valladolid or the two goals to nil trouncing they received at Deportivo’s Riazor stadium last weekend. If they lose this match to Valencia it will be the fourth home loss on a row, having previously succumbed to Sevilla, Recreativo de Huelva and Betis.
For their part Ronald Koeman’s Valencia finally seems to have turned a corner. On Wednesday night they traveled to Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium to face the Catalan side in the first leg of the King’s cup and did a lot better than anyone expected. David Villa scored in the seventieth minute and only an invalid Barcelona goal which the referee didn’t see in stoppage time denied them victory. They still have the second leg to play at Mestalla though, and with an away goal in their pocket could still see some silverware this season, and even more importantly, a gateway to the UEFA cup.
The Valencia squad left the Nou Camp quite disgruntled, to say the least. They were even more annoyed when their plane to take them home to Valencia couldn’t take off due to the heavy fog that had appeared. At five o clock in the morning, Ronald Koeman decided to keep the team in a hotel until the weekend, as Espanyol are also Barcelona’s second team in the city. How the players felt about this improvised idea is anyone’s guess, but I am pretty sure they would have rather taken the relatively short journey home to Valencia to be with their families rather than stay in a hotel for four days.
All this might well affect the team and I am going for a draw here. Espanyol can’t keep losing forever and Valencia have drawn their last three matches, so it seems more than possible.
Prediction: Draw (1-1)

A Deportivo – Sevilla game is always a good one to watch and there are usually plenty of goals. In recent years Sevilla has been the team to take all the points as Deportivo’s policy of not buying decent players and relying on their youth team is starting to tell.
Deportivo are still occupying the last relegation place and are in desperate need of the three points, although there has been signs of a mini revolution of late. They have won three of their last five games and drawn another, but that hasn’t been enough to get them to safety.
Sevilla on the other hand seem to have finally found their Champions league form in the domestic league and are putting together a very nice run of five games unbeaten which includes four wins. This has rocketed them up to fifth in the league and are now just two points from a Champions league place. Not bad considering that it wasn’t too long ago that they were talking about a crisis in Sevilla when the team were fifteenth in the table. They play on Saturday evening at the same time as Atlético Madrid take on in form Barcelona and could even finish the weekend in fourth if Atlético lose.
Deportivo de la Coruña haven’t qualified for the Champions league in four years, and looking at their squad it is unlikely they will qualify again in the next four years, either. Coach Lotina doesn’t have any star names in his squad and the president of the club won’t be looking to buy any next season even if they do beat the relegation drop. Lotina is expected to field the same side that beat an exhausted Espanyol by two goals to one at Deportivo’s Riazor stadium last weekend, but he will have to expect a different reaction when he faces Sevilla.
I’m going for an away win here. Sevilla are a much strong side and they proved that last weekend with an immense display when they beat Zaragoza at home by five goals to nil. As long as they don’t have their heads on the Champions league second leg tie with Fenerbahce the week after, they shouldn’t have too many problems here.
Prediction: Away win (0-2)

This Barcelona side is just getting better and better. At the weekend they saw off lowly Levante at home by a predictable five goals to one, with Cameroon ace Samuel Eto’o showing the world he was back to his old form by shoving three past Levante’s keeper. The Catalan side has now extended their unbeaten run to eight matches, and only two of those games ended in draws. They have been able to recuperate an amazing seven points from leaders Real Madrid in just one month, and everything tells me they will continue adding to their account in this game too.
For Atlético Madrid though, things couldn’t be any worse than they are now. This week has seen the side booted out of the UEFA cup by a struggling Bolton Wanderers and they have lost their last two league games, allowing themselves to slip from third to fourth place. They still occupy a Champions league spot, which is good news, but not for much longer if they keep up with their terrible form.
Barcelona are in second spot but a massive thirteen points in front of the Madrid club, and they will be traveling to the Calderon stadium convinced that they can get all three points. They should be convinced, too. Their football is perhaps the most attractive and the most reliable in the league, and they still have that six goals to nil thumping they give Atlético last season on their minds.
In team news the Ronaldinho of old finally reappeared for Barca against Levante. He started the game and was relaxed, very much part of the game, and most importantly he looked very happy to be playing football. Deco and Thierry Henry were given a rest for the game and will almost certainly start this one.
Barcelona played the semi final of the King’s cup on Wednesday at home to Valencia, and were almost given a surprise defeat. Villa scored for Valencia in the seventieth minute, but Xavi equalized for the home team in stoppage time, with another polemic goal due to a handball from Eto’o.
I’m going for the away win here as I can’t really see Atlético Madrid dragging themselves out of their lethargy in front of Barca. It might not end in the six nil humiliation like last season, but Barca I’m sure will take all three points and might even end the weekend as leaders of La Liga.
Prediction: Away win (1-3)

I’m not sure what Real Madrid has done wrong to anger the God of football, but it must have been something very bad indeed. Just a month ago, the reigning champions of La Liga were nine points clear of their closest rival –Barcelona- and people were saying that the league was just about done and dusted. Just four games later though Barcelona have cut Madrid’s lead at the top to just two points. In fact, the Catalan side only have to rely on themselves to take the crown, providing they beat Real Madrid by more than one goal when the two giants clash at the beginning of May.
Madrid fans aren’t complaining too much about their team’s style of play, but more and ridiculous errors that have lost them nine points from a possible twelve. But no mistake could possibly come close to that they made at the weekend at home against Getafe (which was probably the stupidest goal in the history of the league). The (pretty boring) game was more or less being dominated by Real Madrid and when they scored at the start of the second half the players thought ‘that’s it, another home win’. Six Madrid players ran to the corner flag to celebrate with goal scorer Robben, but they didn’t noticed that the linesman had quite rightly disallowed the goal as offside. Getafe defender Belenguer, who must have thought it was his birthday as well as Christmas, saw the celebrations and quickly took the free kick with just Raul and Guti fast enough to challenge the whole of the Getafe team. How Real Madrid can make such school boy errors is anyone’s guess, but they had better start taking the league more seriously from now on, starting with this tricky away match to Recreativo de Huelva.
Recreativo have taken seven points from the last three games and are dragging themselves from the bottom of the table. There are now one place above the relegation zone on twenty nine points, two points from safety and three points from Getafe who are in tenth position. The bottom half of La Liga is getting very crowded now and any team who have a bad run now could be in serious trouble.
Recreativo drew at the weekend away to Valencia at the Mestalla stadium, and they will be convinced they can get the same result at their own stadium against Madrid. I don’t blame them for being so optimistic. Unfortunately for Recreativo however, they are two reasons why I think Real Madrid will take all three points. One is the return of central defender Pepe, and the other is the return of Brazilian ace Robinho. Without these two Madrid have lacked style, pace, imagination and security at the back. Now that they are both back from injury, we could be seeing a very different Madrid from now on.
Prediction: Away win (1-3)