Spanish football and its weakness at home in Europe

The Champions League returns to action this week with the start of the round of 32 playoffs that Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid will have to face, theoretical favorites in their crossroads, but forced to improve an away performance that this season has choked Spanish football in European competitions, especially at the highest level.

The Madrid team and the red and white team will face the Portuguese Benfica and the Belgian Bruges respectively, with the first leg in Da Luz and the Jan Breydel, where they hope to put their places on track to the round of 16, where FC Barcelona is already, with a good result as visitors, an aspect that this season has been quite adverse for the five representatives of LaLiga EA Sports, except, in part, for Hansi Flick’s team.

Thus, after the 20 trips that Barça, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Athletic Club and Villarreal CF faced, there was only victory in six, 30 percent, with special mention for the ‘Yellow Submarine’, unable to get any point or score against Tottenham (1-0), Pafos (1-0), Borussia Dortmund (4-0) and Bayer Leverkusen (3-0).

The best performer in this sense was FC Barcelona, ​​which took seven of the 12 possible points, losing only at Stamford Bridge against the English Chelsea (3-0), but stumbling somewhat unexpectedly against Bruges (3-3), while they did not fail against Newcastle (1-2) and Slavia Prague (2-4), offering, once again, a certain defensive weakness (9 goals conceded).

Real Madrid was the other team that achieved more than one victory in the league phase away from the Santiago Bernabéu, almost forced against Kairat Almaty (0-5) and Olympiacos (3-4), but lost the most difficult one, at Anfield against Liverpool FC (1-0) and in which they had to not fail to avoid losing the ‘Top 8’, that of the last day against Benfica (4-2). The defensive aspect is also notable with eight goals conceded.

The other two away victories of the LaLiga EA Sports teams were from Atlético de Madrid, which won one of the four, over PSV (2-3), which surely cost them to avoid the ‘Top 8’. Although they had two difficult matches against Liverpool FC (3-2) and Arsenal FC (4-0), they could only draw in Istanbul against Galatasaray (1-1), and were not solid defensively (10 goals conceded). Athletic Club took three difficult points against Atalanta (2-3) and drew (0-0) against Slavia, losing to Borussia Dortmund (4-1) and Newcastle (2-0).

THE FIRST YEAR OF THE LEAGUE PHASE WAS ALSO SOLVENT

A total of 21 of the 60 points at stake for the five, 35 percent, a lower percentage than last season, the first with the new format and which did not show excessive solidity of Spanish football away from home. LaLiga EA Sports had one less team and took 24 points, 50 percent, of the 48 possible, with the debutant Girona FC without being able to contribute any against PSG (1-0), Milan (1-0), Sturm (1-0) and PSV (4-0), as well as Villarreal without scoring as well.

And, once again, FC Barcelona, ​​in trouble, played at a good level, despite losing the first European exit of the year, against AS Monaco (2-1), and then beating Red Star (2-5), Borussia Dortmund (2-3) and Benfica (4-5) and repeating weakness at the back (10 goals conceded). Nine points that Atlético de Madrid replicated, winners against PSG (1-2), Sparta Prague (0-6) and RB Salzburg (1-4) after also losing in their debut against Benfica (4-0). Real Madrid added six of their wins against Atalanta (2-3) and Brest (0-3), but lost against Lille (1-0) and Liverpool FC (2-0).

Subsequently, in the cross-over phase, Barça, which went the furthest to the semi-finals, was only able to win as a visitor in the first leg of the round of 16 against Benfica (0-1), losing in the second leg of the quarterfinals in Dortmund (3-1) and in the penultimate round against Inter Milan (4-3), which deprived them of being in the final.

Real Madrid beat Manchester City at home (2-3) in the first leg of the playoff and then lost in the second leg of the round of 16 against Atlético (1-0) and the first leg of the quarterfinals against Arsenal FC (3-0), while the Colchonero team lost the first leg of the round of 16 at the Santiago Bernabéu (2-1).

In the Europa League, Real Betis and RC Celta had different performances, with the green and white team getting seven of the 12 possible points, only losing in their last outing to PAOK (2-0) and drawing against Genk (0-0), which allowed them to finish in the ‘Top 8’ and avoid an extra round that the Galician team will have to play, which only got four points after beating Dinamo Zagreb (0-3) and drawing against Red Star (1-1) and lose against Stuttgart (2-1) and Ludogorets (3-2).

Finally, in the Conference League, Rayo Vallecano, with one less start (3), beat Jagiellonia (1-2), tied with Hacken (2-2) and lost with Slovan (2-1). In this way, Spanish football added a total of 36 points out of the 93 at stake in this first phase of the European competitions, a discreet 38.7 percent.