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The smallest club in La Liga by some distance made their top-flight debut at their 5k capacity
stadium - and won, beating fellow Basque club Real Sociedad, who were in the Champions League
last season. They nearly didn't get promoted due to Spain's weird financial rules, but
a brilliant winner by Javi Lara did the trick. Next up - Atlético Madrid away!
Athletic Bilbao should have had a draw at Malaga, scoring a superb late equaliser through
goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz - which was bizarrely disallowed by ref Mateu Lahoz. He also gave
a pen - which led to Liverpool loanee Luis Alberto's winner - and it was hardly ideal
prep for Athletic's Champions League playoff 2nd leg v Napoli.
He's the El-Haddaddi.
Munir El-Haddaddi, just 18, scored on his Barcelona debut v Elche and really looked
the part. He was a star of last year's UEFA Youth League (junior CL) and scored an amazing
goal from halfway line v Benfica in the final. His emergence comes at an important time for
the club, with transfer ban looming and many hoping Luis Enrique can work some magic with
the club's kids.
With the struggle to fit James in, one could understand Carlo Ancelotti being a little
bemused by his current lot. He has great players, but probably would have liked ADM here, to
break open stubborn visitors with RM's shape not that great. With lots of travelling fans
(who were very noisy), they home support got restless and whistled, until Cristiano Ronaldo
bashed in a second in the final minute.
News came through on Monday afternoon that Diego Simeone had received an 8-game touchline ban for his conduct in the Supercopa
(a record for a coach in Spain). So German Burgos, who is perhaps even more intimidating,
ran things from the sidelines. It wasn't pretty but Atletico is still a meritocracy, with big signings
Mandzukic and Griezmann taken off for youth products Saul and Hector.