Round 9 of La Liga BBVA sees Real Madrid suffer their first loss\nin a season that has seen the teams at the top of the table look sloppy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Los Blancos continue their inconsistent start to the season\nby losing to RCD Mallorca in Round 9. The tough part to swallow for Madrid\nmight be that Mallorca scored with their only shot on target of the match.\nMadrid weren’t much better with only 4 on target themselves after 64% possession.\nThey managed 14 shots total and overall were very wasteful in this contest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The loss sees Madrid lose their lead at the top and now lay\nin second place. They’ve only won five out of their first nine matches. That shows\nyou how inconsistent the rest of the league has been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Round 9 saw the return of Lionel Messi to the Barcelona lineup\nand he got back to business as usual after his injury problems. Suarez, Messi\nand Griezmann all started together and all three scored. If Messi can finally\nstay healthy, maybe Barcelona can find a level of consistency in their play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the Catalan club find themselves in first place,\nthey’ve already lost twice to start the season. Real and Atletico must really\nfeel like they’ve wasted a golden opportunity to pull away from Barca to start\nthe season. It remains to be seen if Messi plays during the week in the\nChampions League after such an extended absence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diego Costa opened the scoring for Atletico in their Round 9\nclash with Valencia. He converted a penalty in the 36 minute and it appeared\nfor most of the match that it would be enough to get a victory. Dani Parejo had\nother ideas and he was able to equalize in the 82 minute to earn Los Ches an\nimportant away draw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valencia are off to a disappointing start to the season\nafter all of the turmoil going on at the club recently. That’s five unbeaten\nmatches after their last loss which came at the hands of Barcelona. Valencia\nare competing in the Champion’s league this season so they will want to make\nsure they handle their business domestically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rest of the action in La Liga BBVA saw Sevilla manage to\nearn a 1-0 win at home. The goal came courtesy of Luuk de Jong in the 86th<\/sup>\nminute to earn a much needed win for the club from the south of Spain. The\nthree points sees them on 16, only three points behind leaders Barcelona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The table is wide open at the moment which is rarely the\ncase in Spain after Round 9. This is better for the league as predictability\ngives fans less reasons to tune in. It’s good to see there be some challengers\nto the monopoly held by the Madrid and Catalonian teams. It probably won’t last\ntoo much longer but it is fun to dream of a new champion in Spain. Valencia\nwere the last team to break up to the duopoly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round 9 of La Liga BBVA sees Real Madrid suffer their first loss in a season that has seen the teams at the top of the table look sloppy. Real Madrid lose in Round 9 Los Blancos continue their inconsistent start to the season by losing to RCD Mallorca in Round 9. The tough part […]","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"yoast_head":"\n