La Liga

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La liga, also referred to as Spanish Primera División, is the name of the biggest Spanish league. Each season, 20 teams battle for the topmost position in this league while the bottom teams fight to avoid being relegated to the Segunda División. This isn’t just a feat for bragging rights, the top 4 teams automatically qualify for the Champions league; arguably the biggest league in the land. Surprisingly, Real Madrid has taken home more la Liga cups than Barcelona, I thought Barcelona have always been at the top of their game.

Club	Titles Won
Real Madrid	33
Barcelona	26
Atlético Madrid	10
Athletic Bilbao	8
Valencia	6
Real Sociedad	2
Real Betis	1
Sevilla	1
Deportivo La Coruña	1

La Liga results

Memorable Highlights from last seasons (19/20) league include Real Madrid taking the title for the 34^th season and Leganes’s foreshadowed relegation. Messi had a fair share of proud moments but they’ve all been shadowed by the recent 8-2 loss to Bayern. It’s now official, the club has confirmed that Messi made a transfer request. They’re looking for ways to convince him to stay with them but I guess the GOAT needs to prove himself in another club. He’s been playing for Barcelona since he was 14. Messi was looking to get away with a clause in the contract that gives him a free transfer but the manager claims this clause expired.

On the last day of the 2019/2020 la Liga season, there were 10 matches being played and it was at a weird time where a draw for Real Madrid would mean they win.

Betting tip: Know how important this game is to the team you’re betting on. They won’t put up their best game if they don’t have to.

Barcelona beat Alaves 5-0 and even though they still came second to Real, the two goals Messi Scored were a consolation. He made two assists that made him become the best assist player of the season with 21 assists. Messi has been involved in over 1,000 goals and a third of those were classic assists.

Celta Vigo luckily missed being dropped when they drew against Espanyol already destined for the relegation league. Talk of the crabs in a bucket mentality. The Sevilla vs Valencia match ended with Sevilla winning by one goal. With this win, they would have gotten one point on the same day had Atletico failed to score against Real Sociedad but it just wasn’t meant to be. Real Sociedad qualified for next season’s Europa league when the league ended with them at the sixth place.

la liga predictions

Barcelona lost the cup after coming second to Real Madrid. Real Madrid bagged their 26^TH La Liga title in a rather predictable match. They have emerged top place 8 times in the last 11 seasons of   participating in the la liga Spain. We expect that they’ll defend their title this season as they’ve signed Antoine Griezmann on a 5-year contract. Barcelona now has the deadliest striking squad in Spain and for sure their squad is top 5 in Europe.  This season’s starting XI will be interesting. I wonder who’ll start now that they’ve added Griezmann to their already powered up attack line where Suarez, Dembele, Coutinho and Messi steal the show.

Barcelona may make a come back

The 2018/19 spain la liga season hit Real Madrid hard after they finished 3^rd to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Both Zidane and Ronaldo had left they during the inter-team transfer window. We also saw Lopetegui and Santiago lose their jobs at the season’s darkest hour. Zidane wasn’t able to salvage something after his reappointment and that’s how they found themselves being 8 points behind Atletico Madrid. I expect Barcelona to pull a similar stunt in the 2020/2021 season.

There will be money to be made in the OV 2.5 market

The Primera division (spain la liga) and Spanish football in general is known to be a goal fest. Expect more goals per match than in the premier league. These teams don’t focus as much on their defence and being fast paced matches; mistakes are bound to happen and chances will be created each second. Gamblers will have an easier time picking high goal matches here than in other leagues.

la liga a top scorers

#	Player	Team	Goals
1	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	25
2	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	21
3	Gerard Moreno	Villarreal	18
4	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	16
5	Ra£l Garcia	Athletic Bilbao	15
6	Iago Aspas	Celta Vigo	14
	Lucas Ocampos	Sevilla	14
8	Ante Budimir	Mallorca	13
9	Alvaro Morata	Atl‚tico Madrid	12

Messi was the highest goal scorer of the season with 25 goals as we expected. The 5-0 win over Alaves played a role as the last two goals were from this match. Benzema comes in second with 21 goals and obviously, he was Real Madrid’s top scorer for the season. It pays not to being with Ronaldo on the same team.

Side note: Who’s scored more goals between Ronaldo and Messi?

So far, Ronaldo has scored more goals than Messi in overall. This Juventus top scorer benefits from having featured in two more leagues than Messi. They all have at least 600 goals to their name. Messi has created many more goals than Ronaldo (assists) and this is why he’s the GOAT.

Did you know that Messi’s fastest goal was scored in 2 minutes and 7 seconds from kick off. Barcelona took this early lead against Chelsea when fighting for the Champion’s league cup and it stayed that way till 90. It was one boring game.

la Liga standings table

Spanish La Liga 2019/20
#	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Real Madrid	38	26	9	3	70	25	45	87
2	Barcelona	38	25	7	6	86	38	48	82
3	Atletico Madrid	38	18	16	4	51	27	24	70
4	Sevilla	38	19	13	6	54	34	20	70
5	Villarreal	38	18	6	14	63	49	14	60
6	Real Sociedad	38	16	8	14	56	48	8	56
7	Granada	38	16	8	14	52	45	7	56
8	Getafe	38	14	12	12	43	37	6	54
9	Valencia	38	14	11	13	46	53	-7	53
10	Osasuna	38	13	13	12	46	54	-8	52
11	Athletic Bilbao	38	13	12	13	41	38	3	51
12	Levante	38	14	7	17	47	53	-6	49
13	Real Valladolid	38	9	15	14	32	43	-11	42
14	Eibar	38	11	9	18	39	56	-17	42
15	Real Betis	38	10	11	17	48	60	-12	41
16	Alaves	38	10	9	19	34	59	-25	39
17	Celta Vigo	38	7	16	15	37	49	-12	37
18	Leganes	38	8	12	18	30	51	-21	36
19	Real Mallorca	38	9	6	23	40	65	-25	33
20	Espanyol	38	5	10	23	27	58	-31	25

The strangest thing that happened on that night when Real Madrid took the 34^th la Liga title wasn’t that there was a computer-generated crowd; or the simulated fans cheering noises. It was that Real Madrid took the trophy. At the start of the season, we would all have bet that they would finish third, at best. Zinedine Zidane had just been re-hired. Age was catching up with top scoerers; Benzema, Modric and Ramos and Ronaldo off to Juventus, we weren’t sure of how they season would turn out.

Real Madrid only had to garner one point from their final game to beat Barcelona to the title and the point wasn’t forthcoming. Barcelona was having it rough too. 2 goals down, they were losing it to Eibar. Even though they managed to pull an impossible 4 goal comeback, they were in a tight space and Real Madrid still ended up winning.