Saturday 24 January
Villarreal v Osasuna 19.00
Barcelona v Numancia 21.00
Sunday 25 January
Almeria v Athletic Bilbao 16.00
Getafe v Sporting Gijon 16.00
Malaga v Atletico Madrid 16.00
Mallorca v Valencia 16.00
Recreativo Huelva v Real Betis 16.00
Valladolid v Espanyol 16.00
Sevilla v Racing Santander 18.00
Real Madrid v Deportivo La Coruna 20.00
After a week of turmoil behind the scenes, Juande Ramos now has the task of focusing the minds of his players away from events off the pitch. Ramos has stabilized Los Merengues and they will fancy their chances on Sunday evening against a Deportivo La Coruna side that has lost their last four and desperately wants to stay in touch with the European spots. If they harbour any title ambitions, Real must defeat a team who have in recent seasons become a real bogey outfit for them. Barcelona, who were held 0-0 midweek by struggling Espanyol in the cup, welcome Numancia to the Camp Nou – the only side to have beaten them in the league this season. Alves, Eto’o and Henry, rested on Wednesday, will return and the odds are heavily stacked against the team from Soria repeating their first-round exploits.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Manuel Pellegrini will look to continue his team’s gradual recovery as they host bottom side Osasuna. Los Rojillos are 7 points from safety and need to start picking points up from somewhere – though El Madrigal is never an easy place to go. On Sunday, 3rd place Sevilla play Racing, two sides in good form of late with Nikola Zigic having rediscovered his goalscoring touch since rejoining the side from Cantabria. Valencia, who trail Sevilla by four points, will want to heap as much pressure on them as possible by taking maximum points from their trip across the Mediterranean while Atletico Madrid will want to reverse their wretched 2009 run with a victory at in-form Malaga, who have apparently ramped their prices up thanks to their recent success.
Another side in prime nick, Athletic, travel to Almeria, a side who could be sucked into the drop zone if they aren’t careful. Mauricio Pochettino’s first league game in charge of Espanyol is a trip to Valladolid – he’ll be hoping the hosts’ press the self destruct button like they did last week against Betis. Speaking of them, they make the short trip to Recreativo – bet you wouldn’t pay to watch that – and completing the line-up Getafe host Sporting Gijon, a team who have incredibly reached the halfway stage without recording a single draw.
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