During a weekend in which the footballing fraternity joined the wider world in paying tribute to Her Majesty the Queen, the Spanish capital was no exception.
Before any La Liga highlights were played out, Madrid decided to light up its landmarks in the colours of the British flag, red and blue.
It was a fitting gesture ahead of the start of the latest set of fixtures which included two games in the capital – one of them involving Spanish footballing royalty.
Mallorca faced the impossible task of breaking Real Madrid’s La Liga streak, and, in hindsight, made a mistake by having the temerity to take the lead in the Bernabeu as Vedat Muriqi headed home a Lee Kang-in cross.
In the end, it was one they held for 10 minutes as Real levelled in first-half injury-time through Federico Valverde’s fine strike from the edge of the area.
Last season’s Champions League Final matchwinner, Vinicius Jr, put them ahead with a calm finish and that was how it stayed until the closing moments when spirited Mallorca’s rearguard was twice breached.
First Rodrygo netted a superb individual goal before Antonio Rudiger volleyed in a fourth in the third minute of stoppage time – the German’s first goal since joining the club from Chelsea on a free transfer in the summer.
A 4-1 home success – all without star striker Karim Benzema who is out with a thigh injury.
The scoreline was also one-sided when lowly Cadiz hosted Barcelona, just as emphatic as the SBOTOP La Liga betting odds suggested.
The drama, however, was confined to off the pitch but, thankfully, had a happy ending.
In the 81st minute, Cadiz goalkeeper Conan Ledesma was seen sprinting across the pitch with a defibrillator supplied by Barcelona’s medical staff, which he then threw into the crowd.
The match was then suspended for nearly an hour as medical staff worked to attend to a fan who had suffered a cardiac arrest in the stands.
Jose Mari was also seen carrying a stretcher through the stands to the supporter.
When the match started again, Barcelona went on to score twice in the dying moments, but both Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembele were muted in their celebrations.
They had earlier gone 2-0 up through Frenkie de Jong and Robert Lewandowski to break the resistance of the home team, who look like they could face a long winter ahead.
The result leaves Barca in second, although the issue of finance has not gone away for the Catalonians.
La Liga has raised the club’s spending limit by £700 million, bringing it out of a spending deficit after it sold off chunks of assets to patch up its finances.
Barcelona were given a cap of €96m last year, which was slashed by January to minus €144m – meaning the team had to find savings elsewhere to sign new players – after they ran up debts and future liabilities. As a result of their financial turnaround, the league said on Friday it has given Barcelona a cap for the 2022-23 season.
A few hours before their victory in Cadiz, Sevilla finally got off their mark with their first victory of the fledgling campaign.
Before their trip to Espanyol, they had gone down to 3-0 and 4-0 defeats in the space of five days to Barcelona and Manchester City (in the Champions League), prompting the club’s board to meet on Wednesday morning to discuss the future of manager Julen Lopetegui.
Yet they made a dream start, scoring after just 45 seconds when Erik Lamela raced clear and finished coolly.
With confidence boosted, the Andalusians attacked with purpose and Lopoetegui’s decision to select young academy defenders Kike Salas and Jose Angel Carmona paid off as the latter tapped home. Carmona then pounced again on a mistake just before half-time to make it 3-0.
That appeared that, even after Marcos Acuna handled the ball in first half stoppage time and Joselu converted the resulting penalty.
Espanyol pushed forward and it was game on just after the hour mark when Martin Braithwaite pounced on a loose ball.
The home side threw men forward in the closing stages and Lamela received a second yellow with five minutes remaining but, while the contest ran into the 100th minute, Sevilla held on for victory.
Like Cadiz, Elche could be in for a survival struggle this season, and belief seemed low as they fell three goals behind to Athletic Bilbao inside the opening 22 minutes.
The contest finished with a 4-1 reverse and leaves left Elche one off the bottom.
Sunday night’s game saw two of the early season high-flyers as Real Betis hosted Villarreal.
A meeting of two challengers, even though neither are likely to last the pace, it was settled just past the hour mark when Rodri converted a brilliant delivery from youngster Luiz Henrique. Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis are up to third.
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