TSN is your home for La Liga and this weekend’s action is headlined by Real Madrid, coming off a massive win over Manchester City, taking on Elche and Sevilla looking for their first win at Barcelona in more than two decades.
Real Madrid vs. Elche, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT on TSN+
Real Madrid is flying high right now after a midweek thrashing of Manchester City, but manager Alvaro Arbeloa wants to make sure there’s no crash landing on Saturday. Following their Champions League victory in the first leg of the Round of 16, Los Blancos return to La Liga action on Saturday with a visit from Elche. The danger of a Champions League hangover must be avoided.
Things at the Bernabeu couldn’t have gone much better for the hosts on Wednesday. Real thoroughly outplayed Pep Guardiola’s side and got a sensational hat-trick from the excellent Fede Valverde in the 3-0 win. If there was anything to grouse about from the performance it was that Vini Jr. failed to make it 4-0 late on when his penalty was stopped by Gianliuigi Donnarumma.
Instead of a letdown from Wednesday, Arbeloa hopes to use the victory as a springboard against Elche.
“We approach it with the mindset that we are playing for the La Liga,” the World Cup-winning former defender said of Saturday’s match. “We know it is a very important match at our stadium. We want an atmosphere very similar to the one we had last Wednesday. We are also aware of the team we will face, they play better than the points they have and made things difficult for us in the first leg. We are prepared to make an extra effort after the Champions League match, staying very focused and motivated knowing the difficulty of the game.”
If Elche isn’t already playing desperate football, it will be imminently. With 11 matches remaining on the schedule, Los Franjiverdes sit in 17th, just a single point above the drop zone. The biggest issue, though, is their current form. Elche was last victorious on Dec. 21 when they thrashed Rayo Vallecano, 4-0. Since then, Elche is on a 10-match winless run in league play (11 matches winless overall) and has only picked up four points in that stretch. On the road this season, Elche is winless and has lost 10 of 13 matches away from home, including last week’s 2-1 defeat to Villarreal.
Somewhat incredibly, manager Eder Sarabia is staying positive.
“Away from home has cost us more [this season], but maybe Saturday is the day when we change the dynamics,” the former Barcelona assistant said. “It’s one of the best teams in the world and we’ll have to play a perfect match, but football is so wonderful that it allows us to believe.”
Trailing leaders Barca by four points heading into the weekend’s action, Arbeloa says he won’t be taking his foot off the gas against Elche even with the return leg at the Etihad looming on Tuesday.
“We will field the best team possible to beat Elche,” Arbeloa said. “I have no doubt. I am not thinking about anything other than tomorrow’s match at nine at night. The players need to give their all and go home exhausted after each match, recover, and be ready for the next one. That is their job. It is a very demanding job, not an easy one, which is why they are here, because they are Real Madrid players. They must be capable of giving their best version every three days and be ready to run, fight, and work again as they did on Wednesday.”
As for Kylian Mbappé, the France superstar won’t feature on Saturday, but he’s getting closer to a return.
“I think he is getting better every day,” Arbeloa said on Friday. “The progress he is making follows the plan we set when we decided to pause, after conducting all the tests with the medical services and the physical preparation department. It is clear that it also depended a lot on his daily progress, but I see him doing very well. He will not be available [Saturday], but we are confident he will be ready to travel to Manchester.”
In the reverse fixture in late November, Elche actually managed to hold Real to a 2-2 draw. Aleix Febas opened the scoring for the hosts in the 53rd before Dean Huijsen answered back for Los Blancos in the 78th. Elche took a late lead in the 84th through Alvaro Rodriguez and were dreaming of a famous win, but an 87th-minute marker from Jude Bellingham meant the visitors left the Martinez Valero with a point.
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Barcelona vs. Sevilla, Sunday at 10:45 a.m. ET/7:45 a.m. PT on TSN2/TSN+
If Real Madrid hopes to build on what they did in the Champions League this week, Barcelona wants to do the opposite of what went down in Newcastle on Tuesday. For almost all of the 90 minutes at St. James’ Park, Hansi Flick’s side was second-best even if the hosts just couldn’t find a goal. Things changed in the 86th when Harvey Barnes put Toon ahead and seemingly on course for another famous European victory.
But there was one more twist left to come in the match. Late into stoppage, the trailing leg of Malick Thiaw caught Dani Olmo coming into the area and the referee pointed to the spot. Lamine Yamal stepped up and sent Aaron Ramsdale the wrong way to make it 1-1 and leave everything to play for in the return leg at Camp Nou on Wednesday.
Flick conceded the match wasn’t a good one, but didn’t withhold some praise.
“We didn’t play a good game with the ball” Flick said. ”We lost possession too many times and made a lot of mistakes. That’s what Newcastle United wanted. In the end they are a team that looks for that and thrives on recoveries and transitions. What I want to praise about my team today is that we defended together. Defensively we were good and that’s what I’m satisfied with.”
Returning to league action on Sunday at home where Barcelona is undefeated, Flick’s squad comes up against a Sevilla side mired in the bottom half of the table and in the midst of an unconvincing run of form. While the team is undefeated in five matches, there has been only one victory – a 1-0 win over Getafe on Feb. 22 – as part of the string. In fact, Sevilla has only won three times in its past 13 matches. To make matters worse, Sevilla has not won at Camp Nou in nearly 24 years.
Even with Barcelona coming off of a hard match in the Champions League, Sevilla manager Matias Almeyda doesn’t think it will give him any kind of edge.
“I think Barcelona, even if they’re tired, always play in an excellent way, however you look at it,” the former Argentina midfielder said. “It will surely be different from the game we played at home [against Barca in October]. We’ll try to do similar things but being aware of what we’re up against and that it’s been 23 and a half years since our team last won there. That’s a long time. There are players who have never seen it happen. It’s really difficult — we’re going to play against the best team in La Liga and one of the best in Europe. Whether they’re tired or not doesn’t matter, they still do things well.”
That match back in October was one of Sevilla’s best of the season, thrashing Barca by a score of 4-1. While his team might have taken some ideas as to how to successfully handle the league leaders from that match, Almeyda needs Sevilla to focus on the present.
“We’re fighting to avoid relegation,” Almeyda said. “I don’t want to please anyone and people know what I’m like. I speak from the heart, even if I’m wrong. They’re the best team; they score heavily against everyone and have only lost three matches. In that game we did what we had to do. We’ll go there and try to do the same, with a different approach.”
With 11 matches to play, Sevilla sits in 14th on 31 points. They are six points clear of 18th-place Mallorca in the drop zone.
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More La Liga action on TSN
– Girona vs. Athletic Club, Saturday at 8:45 a.m. ET/5:45 a.m. PT on TSN+
– Atletico vs. Getafe, Saturday at 11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT on TSN+
– Oviedo vs. Valencia, Saturday at 1:15 p.m. ET/10:15 a.m. PT on TSN+
– Mallorca vs. Espanyol, Sunday at 8:45 a.m. ET/5:45 a.m. PT on TSN+
– Betis vs. Celta, Sunday at 1:15 p.m. ET/10:15 a.m. PT on TSN+
– Sociedad vs. Osasuna, Sunday at 3:45 p.m. ET/12:45 p.m. PT on TSN+
