La Liga Superthread 2016/17

It's somehow been bypassed today but Ronaldo scoring 5 against Espanyol earlier means he's Real's all time La Liga scorer.

229 goals in 203 matches. Raul needed 550 matches to reach 228. Phenomenal.

dfx- wrote: »

I'm never sure about that Raul statistic. Are they counting the several seasons towards the end of his stay at Madrid where he was played out at right or left wing..he dropped from getting 30 goals a season to barely 10 in 04-07.

Why wouldn't appearances anywhere be counted? Ronaldo has played more on the wing than up front in his Real career.

Great freekick by Neymar and its 1-1 now

Goal! The boy genius, the man who would be king steps up when it matters. In the sweltering heat of the Vicente Calderon Neymar is the ice man, whilst all around him melt, Neymar stays cool.

Handball off the line, no penalty. Were you expecting anything else?

All I can say is wow. Our squad depth really isn't great, mostly due to the transfer ban, we went to the Vicente Calderon to play a genuinely brilliant Atletico team without our first choice keeper, right back, centre back and with the greatest footballer ever on the bench, went a goal behind in the second half and still won the game. Remarkable, absolutely remarkable. Massive credit to this squad and to Luis Enrique, a Barcelona masterclass is dished out every week from this group it seems.

Also if you could give a MOTM award for a 30 minute cameo then it'd be for that Messi performance. There's no words to describe him.
Every player for Barcelona were excellent. What a performance from this unique team.

Just to add to this. Messi seems to have been given MOTM by some of the stats sites. Think about that for a moment, he was on the pitch 31 minutes. The man is beyond belief. He stands above all others.

Enrique deserves massive credit tonight too. Given the circumstances he had to work with tonight, it's an incredible result, his methods have the squad in tremendous shape in every sense. He's proven himself to be the rightful successor to Guardiola and Tito. He has brought back the beauty and joy of following Barcelona, because only Barcelona can reach such heights, there is Barcelona and then there is everyone else.

It's becoming a weekly thing where I eulogies about Atletico Madrid but I'm back again. They've got such quality in depth but also such an incredibly talented young squad at their disposal it's genuinely remarkable.
In particular Oliver Torres, he's come on here tonight and he's run the show since arriving onto the pitch, he has that rarest of skill; the ability to enter Iniesta ghost mode. He's a sublime talent, it's only a matter of time until the Spanish national team is playing to the beat of his tune.

Ter Stegen pinging it to Munir like he's Xavi, great ability with the ball at his feet.

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Goal! Messi's mind works in different ways to the rest of us, the speed of thought to lob it over the defender and the brilliance of the technique to pick out Barta is amazing. Bartra's control is excellent, his finish got the job done. 1-0

I'm surprised it's not 4 or 5 nil. Some of messis passing is unreal.

jamesbere wrote: »

I'm surprised it's not 4 or 5 nil. Some of messis passing is unreal.

It's incredible, sometimes I fear it goes a bit underappreciated.

Rafinha's name rings out around the Camp Nou, what a shame he's going to miss so much football this season. This was looking like it was going to be his breakthrough season, he'll have to wait a bit longer to take his place in the heart of the Barcelona midfield.