La Liga Roundup: Barca Thrash Espanyol, Real And Atletico Held To Frustrating Draws
REUTERS/Albert Gea
After the International break, the third week of La Liga action got underway on Saturday, as all three Spanish heavyweights, viz. Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atletico Madrid featured. Let’s see how they fared in their respective matches.
Barcelona 5-0 Espanyol
Lionel Messi’s incredible form continued in the Catalan derby, as the Argentinian superstar bagged a hat-trick to help Barca register a thumping 5-0 win over Espanyol. With a towering header from the Rakitic corner, Pique scored the fourth goal, while Ousmane Dembele made his much-awaited Blaugrana debut with just over 20 minutes to play, and the French sensation instantly made his mark by firing a ball across for Suarez to tuck home the fifth.
Real Madrid 1-1 Levante
There is no denying that Real missed Cristiano Ronaldo’s presence up front on Saturday, as the Champions were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw against Levante. The visitors took a shock lead through Ivan Lopez, who fired Levante into a 12th-minute lead.
Lucas Vazquez levelled from close range nine minutes before the half-time, and Real missed a series of chances in the second half. Gareth Bale, in particular, endured a frustrating afternoon after replacing Karim Benzema in the 28th minute, as the Welshman missed three glorious chances to make it 2-1.
Adding to Real’ woes, Marcelo was shown the red card in the dying moments of the game, and the Brazilian is likely to face a four-match ban.
Valencia 0-0 Atlético Madrid
There is no doubt that the visitors were the better of the two in the hard-fought draw at Mestalla on Saturday afternoon. Valencia’s defence was very well organised, and in spite of that, Diego Simeone’s men forced the issue in the first half, with Angel Correa and Luciano Vietto coming close to break the deadlock.
Los Colchoneros dominated the second half of the game, but failed to break the relentless Valencia defence, and the game ended 0-0 at full-time.
Written by Pragadeesh Shanmugam 
United fan since Edwin Van der Sar denied Nicolas Anelka’s penalty to earn a dramatic Euro glory. Firmly believes that Lionel Messi deserves to win the Ballon d’Or until he plays this sport. One time writer for GiveMeSport and Roar. A regular contributor to Sportskeeda and BlameFootball.