La Liga Facts

fixturemagazine:

After the draw between Real Madrid and Málaga CF last weekend, the gap between the top two has slimmed to 8 points. How will this effect the race for the title?

Marca has an interesting graphic available where you can plug in your predictions for the remaining matchdays to predict who will be crowned champions of La Liga. We’ve posted our prediction above…what do you think? Fill out your predictions of the remaining matches this season. (Instructions: “1” means the home team will win, “2” means the visiting team will win, “X” means there will be a tie. Click on your prediction and the graphic will automatically adjust to reflect the change.)

…read more.

Very interesting. We definitely recommend checking out this Marca graphic. We won’t tell you what our predictions were, but let’s just say we think this season will be very, very close and fought to the very last jornada.

Did you know? (As of 2/25/12)

Three of the top five scorers in La Liga are Real Madrid CF players. The deadly trio of Cristiano Ronaldo (28), Gonzalo Higuain (14), and Karim Benzema (13) together have scored 70% of Real Madrid’s 79 goals so far this season.

Some fun facts:

- Out of the three, Cristiano is the only one to have scored with a header. In fact, 4 of his 28 goals were headed in.

- Higuain scores almost exclusively with his right foot. He has scored one left-footed goal so far this season.

- Twelve of Benzema’s 13 goals were scored at home. The only away goal he scored was against Valencia, Nov 19th of last year.

- Minutes the trio have played: Cristiano (2013), Higuain (960), Benzema (1351). Higuain is the player most likely to be substituted on (12 times), whereas out of the three Benzema is the most likely to be substituted off (11 times).

As of 2/19/12…

After FC Barcelona’s 5-1 thrashing of Valencia CF, there is a curious phenomenon in the league table.

Out of the 20 teams in the top flight of La Liga, 15 of them have negative goal differences, meaning they have conceded more goals than they have scored. The remaining teams have positive goal differences, but only in the single digits. There are two giant exceptions: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who are completely dominating the entire table with goal differences of 58 and 51, respectively.

Literally, from 7th place down, every team has a negative goal difference. Even RCD Espanyol, who is occupying a Europa League spot currently, has a goal difference of -1.

As of 2/18/12

Real Madrid continued their run of wins in La Liga yesterday against Racing Santander (4-0). Real Madrid kept a clean sheet, which surprisingly is only the second they’ve managed to keep at home this season in the league. Real Madrid is actually more prone to dominating in away games, where they have 7 clean sheets.

Fun fact? The last time Real Madrid kept a clean sheet at home this season was late last year, on October 26.

Feeling the Clásico fatigue yet? Well you’re not the only one. For 8 seasons straight (2002-2010) there were only ever two clashes between Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona per year.

Last season there were 7. And this season we’re already guaranteed to see 4, perhaps more depending on how the Champions League goes. And then there’s the Supercopa as well… All in all, the maximum number of times that Real Madrid and Barcelona can potentially face each other in one season is 8 times in all competitions, which has never happened before. Prior to last season’s Clásico overload, the most Real Madrid and Barcelona had ever met in one season was 5 times.

[The above graphic is from Marca, who have on their website a super informative graphic with the results of every Clásico ever played, top scorers in El Clásico, etc. Enjoy.]

Did you know? (As of 1/15/2012)

Has your team gotten off to a disappointing start after La Liga’s winter break? Well they’re not alone. In last week’s fixtures, there was only one win in the entire top half of the table. That’s right. The top ten teams in La Liga all drew or lost, with the exception being Real Madrid CF’s one win.

This week has seen better results for the top 10, but still poor results for the top 5. In fact, CA Osasuna’s loss today sees them tumbling from #5 on the table to #6. (They are on level with Athletic Bilbao on points, but have a lower goal differential.)

The only game left to play today is FC Barcelona’s match against Real Betis. Will Barcelona shake the post-break blues? 

Did you know?

We’ve given our fact about the young today, perhaps now a fact about the old?

Alfredo Di Stéfano is an iconic figure in Real Madrid CF’s history. But few remember that after his time at Real Madrid, he spent two more years playing for RCD Espanyol. He was the oldest player to ever play for Espanyol, and the oldest to score an official goal for Espanyol (39 years and 231 days old.)

Did you know? (Looking ahead to Jornada 18 match…)

In less than an hour, the two La Liga teams with the most and least goals scored will face off against one another. Real Madrid CF has scored the most goals thus far (56), whereas Granada CF has only managed to score 10 goals this season.

In fact, Real Madrid’s top scorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, alone scored two times more than the entire team of Granada combined. Fun fact? Granada’s top scorer isn’t even a striker. He is Brazilian defender Guilherme Siqueira and he’s only scored two goals.

Did you know?

Sometimes the symmetry of some statistics can be quite interesting. For example, the number 6. Real Madrid have been awarded the most penalties this season, 6, and not a single one against. FC Barcelona has seen the most expulsions go their way this season, 6 opponents sent off and not a single Barcelona player sent off.

On the flip side, RCD Espanyol has seen all their refereeing decisions go the wrong way. They’ve had 5 penalties called against them and not a single penalty called in their favor. In addition, they’ve had 4 of their players sent off (tied for the most with Osasuna) and seen only one opposing team player sent off. And guess who it was? Yup, the infamous youngster Eneko Satrústegui.

Did you know?

Both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have scored 50 goals in La Liga so far. The league total is 397, so together the two teams make up roughly 25% of the entire league. The average number of goals scored by each team is about 20.

The team with the smallest number of goals scored? Granada CF, 8 goals.