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By visitors' request, after more than a year of break, we will again regularly present the previews of the Spanish championship.
This weekend, Pamplona's "Osasuna" and "Barcelona" clubs, playing against relatively weak opponents, hope to stay at the top of the championship table.
Currently sharing the first place on the table with 25 points, clubs hope for the misfortunes of Vigo's "Celta" in the third place and Madrid's "Real" in the fourth place.
Last weekend, having won the first "El Clasico" of the season 3-0 as visitors and then triumphing 3-1 at home in the UEFA Champions League against Bremen's "Werder," "Barcelona" players hope to easily defeat "Racing Santander," who have only collected eight points in their last ten matches. However, there are also some bad news from the Barcelona camp: Samuel Eto'o, the top scorer of the Spanish championship, did not finish yesterday's evening training due to back problems, but the club doctors did not comment on whether the Cameroonian will appear in the match on Sunday. Ronaldinho and Maxi were absent from training due to illness, while the Dutchman Mark van Bommel has a long-term injury.
The other leaders, the "surprise of the season" called Pamplona's "Osasuna" players, will host Vitoria's "Alaves" team at home. Having defeated one of the most prestigious clubs in Spain, Bilbao's "Athletic," in the last round, the Vitoria team will surely be on the rise. The fact that these two clubs have not faced each other for almost two and a half years adds interest to this match. Pamplona's coach Javier Aguirre will not be able to rely on the French midfielder Ludovic Delporte, who has not fully recovered from his injury, but the head doctor, Jose Izquierdo, working intensively, hopes to overcome the time and play in Sunday's match.
A very interesting match is expected at the "El Riazor" stadium in La Coruna, where "Deportivo" will face "Villarreal." Both teams - among the most stable this season - share the fifth and sixth places with 20 points. In the ranks of "Deportivo," we will see Manuel Pablo and Aldo Duscher, who have returned from their injuries, in action again. However, the much greater reinforcement will be the return of the team's leader, Juan Roman Riquelme, to the "Villarreal" ranks. The coach of the "Yellow Submarine" will most likely place Sebastien Viera back in goal after his recovery from injury. Although his replacement, Mariano Barbosa, played remarkably well and even made it into the "Team of the Week," M. Pellegrini tends to rely more on the experienced Argentine. However, despite the return of these two players, "Villarreal" will be without five players: Cazorla, Quique Alvarez, Calleja, Guayre, and Diego Forlan. Without a doubt, the visitors will miss the most productive player of last season, Diego Forlan, who will be out for several more weeks, and he will likely be replaced by the Argentine Luciano Figueroa.
Undoubtedly, the most interesting match on Saturday (though there will be only two) will be in Valencia, where "Valencia" will host the Vigo "Celta" team, returning to the top league after a year of break. The hosts will definitely not see the defender Rufete, who received a two-week match suspension - the coach decided to punish the player who showed his anger at being substituted in the previous match. The coach also cannot be sure that the recovering defender Ruben Baraja and the defender Roberto Ayala will be able to play. The absence of the latter would be a real loss for the Valencia team, as the defender David Navarro has not yet recovered from his injury, and the Spanish national team defender Carlos Marchena will not be able to play due to a red card received in a match against "Cadiz". Meanwhile, in the visitors' ranks, all main players will likely be available.
Madrid's "Atletico" will hope that their rivals - Barcelona's "Espanyol" - will be tired after the UEFA Tropa matches. The second Madrid team, playing very unstably this year, currently occupies only the 12th place in the table. Both teams have one of the strongest lineups, and the return of the former "Espanyol" player and Argentine national team defender Maxi Rodriguez will surely bring a lot of intrigue.
"Mallorca" and "Athletic Bilbao" teams will also have strong lineups when they meet on Saturday. Having recently replaced the coach, "Athletic Bilbao" still awaits the first fruits of the legendary coach's work, but all experts agree that the last place in the table for one of the most prestigious clubs in Spain is definitely inappropriate. Although playing away, a match with "Mallorca," which is in only 16th place, could be a great opportunity for Javier Clemente's proteges to win a second victory this season.
However, all experts agree that the central match of the round will take place on Sunday when "Real Sociedad" in San Sebastian will host the heavily injured Madrid "Real" club. The coach of the very unstable Royal club, Wanderlei Luxemburgo, will have to deal without the team captain Raul, who is recovering from a long-term injury on Sunday. There are also doubts about the participation of forward Ronaldo and defender David Beckham, who did not participate in training on Friday. Meanwhile, the hosts will definitely not see the seriously injured Serb, Darko Kovacevic.
Although the Spanish media is buzzing with talk that failure could cost Wanderlei Luxemburgo his position as coach of "Real," the sports director of the Royal club denied on Friday any talk of an unstable coaching position.
In Zaragoza, the local team will try to break through the best defense of the Spanish championship, which has conceded only six goals in the league this season. A youth academy of Sevilla that produced the current Real defender Sergio Ramos can certainly boast of its defenders who deal excellently with opponents' attackers. However, the tough match, which ended with a painful defeat on Thursday in St. Petersburg, where "Sevilla" lost 2-1 to the local "Zenit," could have a negative impact on the performance of the Sevilla team over the weekend.
The other Sevilla team, "Betis," fans will surely hope that their team, playing in the UEFA Champions League this year, will finally "find its stride" in the Spanish championship. For the "Betis" players, who are in the embarrassing penultimate place in the table and will have to play without Ricardo Oliveira, who has been recovering from injury all season, the match against the league debutant "Cadiz" will be a great opportunity to win three points.
This season's breakthrough team, Madrid's "Getafe," will host the "Malaga" team, which is in the middle of the table, at home. A victory for the Madrid team would prove that the impressive start of the season was not just a coincidence. However, if "Getafe" fails to defeat the star-less Malaga team, they would only confirm the very pessimistic predictions of experts.
Saturday matches: Mallorca - Athletic Bilbao, Valencia - Celta
Sunday matches: Atletico - Espanyol, Deportivo - Villarreal, Getafe - Malaga, Osasuna - Alaves, Betis - Cadiz, Zaragoza - Sevilla, Real Sociedad - Real, Barcelona - Racing Santander
