La Liga Saturday Matches Previews: Oct. 23, 2010

Zaragoza vs. Barcelona

As always, when playing against Barcelona, it doesn’t matter how good your home form is or even if you’re a good side, odds are you aren’t going to be the favourite. Not that that would make any difference here seeing as Zaragoza are at the bottom of the table and are playing absolutely shockingly.

There is absolutely no way that they are going to win against one of Spain’s biggest clubs. Granted Barcelona have proved to be fallible this season, but short of a miracle this match isn’t going to go their way, if you’re a Zaragoza fan you better start praying.

Messi is likely to go to town here, the question is more about how big the margin of victory will be not whether or not there will be one. It’s possible that Barcelona could suffer from a Champions League hangover, but that is rather unlikely.

Zaragoza are going to have to deal with being winless for yet another week while the away side need to continue to win if they are to keep the pressure on Real Madrid. We all know exactly how close the Spanish league can be and Valencia look like they could maybe just make it a three-horse race this season.

Real Madrid vs. Santander

Real have returned to form and they will be looking to make sure that it continues. Racing aren’t going to be too much of an issue for a Real team which is now back on track: This is going to be a nice and easy match for the home side. The table-toppers need to keep winning; even one slip up is liable to see Barcelona jump to the top of the table.

Ronaldo is as always the man to watch—Real have been making very effective use of their possession recently which is largely to do with the way which the midfield have been playing.

Sixteenth place Racing will be looking for a draw here so expect cagey play, which is pretty much what you would see from a mid-table team playing against Real Madrid. It’s pretty likely that the away side will be leaving this match pointless and probably without even scoring—they aren’t playing well enough this season to even dream of a victory here.

Valencia vs. Mallorca

Valencia had a cracking start to the season, they have slowed down a little bit although they are still in the second place which is nothing to complain about and only one point behind leaders Real Madrid. They will once again try to make this campaign a three-horse race.

Whether or not that happens depends on if they can return to the form that they started the season with, a win here would go a long way to making that happen. The best of Spain’s rest have shown that they can be up there with the big two, let’s just hope that they can get back to winning ways and make this year's league a little more interesting to watch.

Mallorca are getting a bit of reputation for stumping La Liga’s leading sides, and they’ll be hoping to do that one more time. The club currently placed 11th in the Spanish league are certainly a good side, the problem is their inconsistency, on form they can be world-beaters on average they spend all their time wallowing in mid-table obscurity.

This could be an interesting match if Mallorca play to their strengths and Valencia could be in some trouble although the odds aren’t really in their favour. Cavenaghi is the best chance of a Mallorca scorer and he will be the man to watch if the match starts to go Mallorca’s way.

Joe - livescoredaily.com - live scores and sports.