The Weekly Clásico #1: La Liga Matchday 4 recap

Real Madrid 2-1 Real Sociedad

This weekend, Real Madrid held on to beat Real Sociedad despite being down a man for most of the match after center back Dean Huijsen was controversially sent off in the 32nd minute.

Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé led Los Blancos with a goal and an assist in the first half, which proved to be all that was needed to take all three points from Sociedad.

Despite the loss, Sociedad demonstrated solid play, finishing the game with more shots and corners while applying constant pressure on Madrid throughout the second half. That pressure led Sociedad to earn and convert a penalty in the 56th minute, thanks to forward Mikel Oyarzabal’s spot-kick that rolled into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Madrid remain perfect through their first four matches of the season, and following a surprising Athlético Bilbao loss over the weekend, Los Blancos now have the outright lead in the standings.

As for Real Sociedad, they remain in the bottom half of the La Liga table, and have yet to record a victory through the season’s first four matchweeks.

Atlético Madrid 2-0 Villarreal

In one of the weekend’s more shocking results, Atlético Madrid grabbed their first win of the season against Villarreal and kept a clean sheet in the process.

Going into Saturday’s match, Villareal were primed to challenge Atlético Bilbao and Real Madrid for first place in the league, while Atlético came in with only two points through their first three matches of the season.

Los Colchoneros took control early and never looked back. Midfielder Pablo Barrios opened up the scoring for the red and white on a link-up play with striker Julián Alvarez.

Atlético then grabbed a second goal in the 52nd minute, thanks to a header from Nicolás González.

Atlético outshone Villarreal in almost every metric, finishing the match with more shots on target and controlling most of the possession in what was a must-needed win for the club.

Barcelona 6-0 Valencia

FC Barcelona ran rampant at home against Valencia on Sunday, registering six goals in a shutout.

Heading into the match, there was controversy surrounding Barcelona Manager Hansi Flick’s decision to drop Brazilian star winger Raphinha from the starting lineup. However, Flick’s decision was justified because of Raphinha’s tardiness at the team’s last training session before the match.

Barcelona was also missing its star midfielder, Frenkie de Jong, and its best all-around player, Lamine Yamal, as both players suffered injuries during the international break.

Forward Fermín López opened up the scoring in the 29th minute for the home side, the only goal in the first half of play.

Raphinha was eventually brought on at the start of the second half and made an instant impact, giving Barcelona a two-goal advantage in the 53rd minute.

López and Raphinha would both go on to record braces, and Polish striker Robert Lewandowski came on towards the end of the match and earned one of his own, capping off Barcelona’s dominant night at home with two goals.

Reflecting the scoreline, Valencia barely threatened Barcelona the entire match, as the visitors registered just two shots and maintained only 27% of the possession.

Barcelona, on the other hand, finished the match with an impressive 24 shots, ten of which were on target. Barcelona are now second in La Liga, and will face third-place Getafe on Sunday.