Weekend round-up and The changing roles of Malaga and Villareal

With the big three all playing on Saturday evening, Sunday was a day for the Spanish ‘second tier’ to showcase their talents. Levente this season’s surprise package got back to winning ways with a fantastic 4-0 home victory over Sporting Gijon. Athletic Club a side with so many talented players who have been so excellent this season were unusually stuck for ideas at home against Granada. It was a cautious affair but Granada despite spending the majority of the match defending went back south with 3 points away from home. Granada who have the worst shots to conversion in Europe’s top 5 leagues, 31 shots to every goal, just needed the one effort on Sunday an Inigo Lopez header.

Review of Spain's games

The England vs Spain game was a far from engrossing encounter it did have some real intrigue to it. Spain are noted and praised for their tiki-taka technique just as Barcelona are and the week before the international friendly Barcelona were held by Athletic Bilbao. Loco Bielsa kept his tactics fairly sane and the rain soaked pitch slowed down the movement of Barcelona. Bielsa was a cult figure in charge of the Chilean national team with his adventurous tactics but it was the defensive tactics of Bilbao that sought most of the praise from the media after the match. After the game Pep Guardiaola said that “We’ve never played against a team who were so intense, so aggressive, and has denied us so much space”. Capello apparently showed clips of the game at San Mames to his England squad.  England started with Phil Jones in midfield and his job was to be big and awkward which he did with aplomb.