Spain Football

Well, the First Division clubs enter the Copa del Rey tonight and, although there are some potential giant killers eg. Benidorm or Real Union, quite a few of the Segunda dangerous could quite easily beat the sides in the lower half of Primera.

Here are the fixtures:-

 Benidorm v Barcelona,  

Portugalete v Valencia,

Poli Ejido v Villarreal,  

Orihuela v Atletico,  

Ponferradina v Sevilla,  

Elche v Deportivo,  

Murcia v Racing,  

Celta v Espanyol,  

Rayo Vallecano v Almeria,  

Hercules v Valladolid,  

Castellon v Betis,  

Numancia v Sporting,  

Malaga v Mallorca,  

Getafe v Osasuna,  

Real Union v Real Madrid,  

Athletic v Recreativo

Well, not much of a game last night. Barca won 1-nil but there wasn't much dazzling football. A good run about for the likes of Hleb, Caceres, Silvinho et al and Pep had the chance to give Victor Vazquez (who had a goal disallowed) a full game along with another reserve team player who's name escapes me.

Celta v. Espanyol on TV tonight - I can't wait!

Poli Ejido 5!!!! Villarreal 0  and Ponferradina 1 Sevilla 0. Sadly, Elche lost 2-nil to Depor - mala pata!

Real Unio 3 Real Madrid 2

I thought this was a great game - I'm not saying that because RM lost. Real Unón weren't overawed in the slightest and defended well and I thought their finishing was superb. All three goals were Primera level - what's a team like this doing in 2B? If they had a better midfield game they'd have thrashed Madrid, who lacled ambition-

Is it just me but doesn't the description 'the best defence in the world' sound a bit absurd when you can see how piss-poor RM's defence is?

Well, this round has shown how arbitrary the difference between the giants and the tiddlers really is. Real Unión is the perfect example and the fact that Barça could only score one in each of the ties against Benidorm is another. I haven't looked at all the results yet so I wonder how Villarreal and Sevilla fared. More thoughts tomorrow.