Spanish Gameweek 37

It was a great Gameweek 37 in La Liga. Barcelona and Real Madrid both won 4-1 a few days ago in Gameweek 36 and still, a single point separated them coming into today's game.

Both teams came out of the gate running, Barcelona going up 1-0 five minutes into the game, Real Madrid at the 22nd minute. Real Madrid had a bit of a scare when, despite playing a man down due to a red card, Athletic Bilbao tied the game. Barcelona kept cruising on over Sevilla, going up 2-0 in the first half, then 3-0 early in the second half.

Real Madrid had most of the position in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but didn't do much with it. They had several shots, but could not find an easy opening. Finally, with 17 minutes left to go, they got the 2-1 off of a corner kick, and Bilbao's defense was broken wide after that. Final score: Real Madrid 5-1 Athletic Bilbao. Real Madrid, 5 goals from 5 different players: Cristiano Ronaldo (on a pk), Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema, and Marcelo.

Barcelona had a scare of their own, after Sevilla scored at the 68th minute and the 70th minute. Fortunately for Barca, the scoring ended there.

The last and final game is next Sunday, May 16th. Barcelona have 96 points and host Valladolid. Real Madrid have 95 points and visit Malaga.

The other spots still battled are for the fourth and final place in the Champions League. Sevilla have 60 points and visit Almeria next week, and Mallorca have 59 points and hosts Espanyol. My predictions: both Sevilla and Mallorca will win, giving the final Champions League spot to Sevilla and sending Mallorca to the Europa League next season.

The sixth and final place in the Europa League is also being contested. Getafe and Villareal are tied with 55 points (goal difference of +7 and +1 respectively), and they will visit Athletico Madrid and Real Zaragoza respectively.

Finally, the battle to try to stay in Spain's top flight is also fiercely contested between five teams. Three of those five teams will see themselves playing in the second division next season. Currently, those last five places look like this:

Pos...Team..................Points...Goal Diff
16....Malaga....................36 Pts......-6 GD
17....Racing Santander....36 Pts......-19 GD
18....Valladolid...............36 Pts......-21 GD
19....Tenerife...................36 Pts......-33 GD
20....Xerez......................33 Pts......-28 GD

I think the three bottom place teams at the end of this week will be at the bottom of the table next week too and will be relegated.

English Premier League 09/10

Chelsea is poised to win the English Premier League this season, as they are four points clear of Manchester United. Man U lead Sunderland 1-0 at the moment and are likely to tack on another goal or two in the second half, I believe. This would lead to the last game of the season, where Chelsea will host Wigan at Stamford Bridge and Manchester United will host Stoke City at Old Trafford. Both of the top two teams are more than likely to win that last game, meaning there will be a new champion to the premier league this season, as Man U are the defending champions the last three years running.

The only top European league with a mathematically crowned champion is the Scottish Premier League, where Rangers have been three to four games clear of Celtic for what seems like forever.

Several of the top European leagues have a likely champion, one who has created a gap between themselves and second place with a few games left to go, as is the case with Marseille in France, and Bayern Munich in Germany who have a three point lead with a game to go.

The rest have a close race to the title, Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, and Roma and Inter Milan in Italy.

This past season has been a more than decent year for football, and hopefully this means it will be a more than decent World Cup.