La Liga Lowdown

In this bonus podcast, Euan McTear speaks to 2 colleagues in the Spanish capital about Real Madrid after Los Blancos suffered 7 days of their worst nightmares: being knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Barcelona, then losing in LaLiga to Barcelona and finally (and perhaps most shockingly) throwing away a 2-1 away first-leg advantage to crash out of the Champions League to Ajax. In part 1, Euan...

Real Madrid fans, we apologise. This won't be an easy listen. But it will be a comprehensive one, as we pick apart all the big talking points of El Clásico - the 4th clash between Madrid & Barcelona this season, and a 3rd win for Barça coming swiftly after their victory at the Bernabéu in the Copa del Rey. Gerard Piqué was majestic, but a few other players also stood out in an i...

What would Barcelona do without Lionel Messi? Well, lose a lot more for a start. The little Argentine came back to haunt Sevilla once again with an utterly outstanding hat-trick, helping them come from 1-0 and 2-1 to win at the Sanchez Pizjuan in the last 5 minutes. We celebrate Leo and all his stats, but it's still a bit of a worrying picture for out-of-sorts Philippe Coutinho... E...

There are so many talking points surrounding the LaLiga champions and Copa del Rey holders, and in this special bonus podcast edition, Román de Arquer speaks to respected journalist Marco Chiazza. If you're a Barcelona fan, or even if you're not, this is definitely for you.  Roman & Marco discuss all of the following topics, in a tight but informing half-an-hour chat: - reaction to B...

Just when you thought you could predict LaLiga, it does something else to confuse you, and this time it's called Real Madrid. Every bit of form pointed towards them not only beating Girona but MAULING THEM...and yet they lost 2-1 at home, and it was basically all their fault. And it's also their fault that Barcelona keep inching further ahead, without doing anything special. Lionel Messi...

You can still hear the fans arguing in the bars of Madrid. To say there were a few controversial or questionable decisions in Saturday's derby is putting it mildly, and the poor old buggers in the VAR booth were right at the centre of it all...but the fact is Real Madrid beat Atleti to go 2nd in the table - they were better, and it's now 5 straight LaLiga wins for them, just 6 points off Barc...

In our first special bonus edition of the La Liga Lowdown podcast, Euan McTear speaks to Madrid-based journalist and reporter Antía André about everything that's going on at the 2 big clubs in the Spanish capital. In a comprehensive chat, they discuss their current form, and also the huge derby at the Wanda Metropolitano this weekend, so find out who Euan and Antía are backing for the game itself....

"Expect the unexpected" is the theme of LaLiga this season - Barcelona were held by Valencia (rescued by Leo Messi again), then Atlético Madrid could have made up ground on the leaders but they lost at Real Betis...Sevilla also went to out-of-form Celta Vigo, and they lost too. So that's 3 of the top 4 failing to win. Real Madrid have hit form though, 3-nil winners over Alavés. The chasi...

Are Real Madrid back for good? Like REALly back? (Sorry.) Suddenly the boys in white (or actually a weird pinky red this week) are looking like European champions, with big names starring and scoring - especially Karim Benzema as they won at Espanyol. Question is: is he the best number 9 in the world?! Just up the road, Barcelona beat Girona but it wasn't actually all that...

Some things in LaLiga are odd. Like Barcelona signing Kevin-Prince Boateng. (They actually have, on loan.) But other things aren't. We witnessed some incredible goals this weekend in Spain's top flight - Casemiro for Real Madrid, Jorge Molina for Getafe, Charles for Eibar just to name a few. If you want spectacular strikes and top tekkers, then LaLiga is THE place to be. A...

This weekend we saw yet another milestone in the extraordinary career of Lionel Messi. He's now reached 400 goals in LaLiga after scoring in Barcelona's 3-0 win over Eibar, as the champions take a five-point lead into the second half of the season. The performance of Philippe Coutinho has given Ernesto Valverde food for thought, so Román tells us what the future holds for him. With Atlet...

3 words: More Madrid misery. Yes, they might be European champions, but Real Madrid definitely didn't look like it as they slumped to a 6th LaLiga defeat of the season at home to Real Sociedad. We absolutely tear into Los Blancos, and deservedly so because they were truly terrible. The result leaves them 10 points off leaders Barcelona who won away to hard men Getafe, but at le...

So, reasons for fans of both of Spain's Big 2 to be happy - Real Madrid got the job done in Abu Dhabi as they won a 3rd straight Club World Cup and Barcelona finish the year top of LaLiga and 3 points clear, while one of their rivals stumbled. We look at both in depth and in detail. Atlético were 1-nil winners over Espanyol thanks to Antoine Griezmann again, but could there be trouble ahead i...

Go on then, YOU describe Lionel Messi. 3 goals + 2 assists = 1 masterful display as Barcelona got sweet revenge at Levante, winning 5-0 at the ground where they lost last season as they surrendered an unbeaten league campaign in the penultimate game. It means they stay top, but Sevilla were superb and Atletico survived a scare at Valladolid to keep pace with Barca. Now Real Madrid a...

How often have we said that superlatives don't do Lionel Messi justice? Well, we're saying it yet again after the little Argentine started and finished the Catalan derby with 2 sensational free-kicks, Barcelona beating Espanyol 4-0 away. We're giving our marks out of 10 to both sides. Atlético and Real Madrid both win but neither of them had it easy, while Sevilla almost won at Mestalla...

A win, a first clean sheet in 12 LaLiga games, they're back top of the table...but Barcelona fans still aren't happy. The style of play under Ernesto Valverde is coming under intense scrutiny, despite all the injuries they've got, but nevertheless they've reclaimed top spot, and the chasing pack slipped up. Sevilla in 2nd and Alavés in 4th drew at Mendizorrotza, while 3rd-placed Atlético Madr...

Every week, you think you've got LaLiga figured out and then something else happens to completely ruin your logic. This time it was Real Madrid losing 3-0 at Eibar, having seemingly found their feet under new head coach Santi Solari in recent weeks. Meanwhile Barcelona couldn't win either - in fact, they needed a very late equaliser from Ousmane Dembélé to get a point at Atlético. A...

We have a bumper edition of the minipod this week...so maybe it's a maxipod? Or a gigapod?! David Garrido, Paco Polit and Román de Arquer are involved in this one and first up, we cover Spain who lost to Croatia to stop them reaching the Final Four in the UEFA Nations League, but then beat Bosnia in a friendly to round off 2018 - we dissect those matches and discuss how it's gone far und...

LaLiga continues to throw up surprise after surprise, and this week it came primarily with Barcelona losing a 7-goal thriller against Real Betis at the Camp Nou - it's their first home defeat in the league since September 2016. We discuss how and why it's happened, with the chasing pack reducing the gap to just 1 point as all of Atlético Madrid, Sevilla & Alavés came from behind to win. T...

Matchday 11 in LaLiga was about late goals...we had 10 of them in the 80th minute or later spread across the games...and Barcelona needed to score 2 in the last 5 minutes to snatch the win at Rayo Vallecano - Luis Suárez continuing his scoring streak to rescue Barça in the absence of Lionel Messi. Real Madrid also scored twice late on to beat Real Valladolid. It wasn't a great weekend for the...

There might have been no Messi and no Ronaldo, but Clásicos NEVER lack drama and Sunday's match at the Camp Nou was no different. Barcelona's 5-1 victory at home to Real Madrid sent them back to the top of the table, and in the process ended Julen Lopetegui's reign as Madrid head coach. We discuss the big talking points in the game, why it's gone wrong for Los Blancos under the ex-Spain...

You could almost hear a pin drop as Lionel Messi was down receiving treatment after falling awkwardly on his arm...and despite already inspiring Barcelona towards victory at home to Sevilla on LaLiga Matchday 9, he will now be out for 3 weeks, meaning he'll miss El Clásico next Sunday. In this minipod, we discuss that with one of our squad members based in Barcelona, plus how Barça cope without Me...

It's another international special on the La Liga Lowdown minipod, as we recap Spain's 2 matches over the international break - a shock 3-2 loss to England in Seville in the UEFA Nations League as they suffered their first competitive home defeat in 15 years and 39 games, which came off the back of a 4-1 victory over Wales in a friendly in Cardiff last Thursday. David Garrido takes you through the...

You'd never believe it, but Barcelona and Real Madrid aren't having it their own way in LaLiga - not by a long shot. For starters, they've both failed to win for a 3rd matchday in a row, and Sevilla are the team who've taken advantage to go top of the table, with Atlético Madrid well in the mix 1 point behind. In this La Liga Lowdown matchday 8 minipod, we discuss how and why Madrid went down...

Look at that LaLiga table. 6 points covering the top half after 7 games, which just goes to show that The Big 3 don't always have things their own way. In fact, none of them won in this latest round of fixtures, with leaders Barcelona held at home by Athletic Club which means they've taken only 2 out of the last 9 points on offer. What's going on there? Real Madrid and Atlético...