The Spanish La Liga finally returned on Thursday evening with such an exciting opening day fixture between local rivals Sevilla and Real Betis at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Playing without the support of the home crowd Sevilla did not seem like they needed their fans after all as they dominated the encounter from the very first minute to cruise to a 2-0 victory against their local rivals.
With La Liga leaders FC Barcelona set to kick start their season on Saturday against RCD Mallorca, all eyes were firmly fixed on the return of Lionel Messi but it was the Chilean Arturo Vidal who would open the floodgates with a delightful header to give Barcelona the advantage.
January signing Martin Braithwaite scored his first ever Barcelona goal with Jordi Alba adding another to make it 3-0. Messi was not to be denied an invitation to the party as he converted a late goal to raise his goals tally to 20 goals in the 2019/2020 campaign
On Sunday, Second placed Real Madrid responded rather superbly to close the gap on archrivals Barcelona by thumping SD Eibar 3-1 with Toni Kroos, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo all getting in on the act
Full Matchday results:
Sevilla 2-0 Real Betis
Granada 2-1 Getafe
Valencia 1-1 Levante
RCD Espanyol 2-0 Deportivo Alaves
Celta Vigo 0-1 Villareal
Leganes 1-2 Real Vallodolid
Mallorca 0-4 Barcelona
Athletic Bilbao 1-1 Atletico Madrid
Real Madrid 3-1 Eibar
Real Sociedad 1-1 Osasuna
