A Look At European Soccer (Serie A & La Liga)

With soccer having returned all across Europe last week following the season’s second international break, I thought it would be a good time to examine what’s going on in the “Big 4” leagues.

Here I’ll take a look at a pair of wide open leagues: Serie A (Italy) and La Liga (Spain)

Serie A: This was supposed to be the year that Juventus’ nine-year run at the top came to an end. They are currently fourth with 17 points. Clubs such as Inter Milan or Atalanta were the picks of many to supplant Juventus. Fresh off an impressive 3-0 win over Sassuolo, Inter is tied for 2nd. Atalanta is 8th as they’ve conceded 16 times, the most of any side in the top half. The big story is AC Milan running ahead of everybody with 23 points taken out of a possible 27. They have not been beaten. Neither has Juventus, but they have four wins and five draws as opposed to AC Milan’s seven wins and two draws. Aforementioned Sassuolo is still tied with Inter for second, but I expect them to drop. Napoli is sitting in 5th and could be the club who moves past Sassuolo into the top four. In the relegation zone, we have a number of sides that could finish bottom three. Don’t be surprised to see Benevento drop there as they’ve conceded 21 times, second most in all of Serie A.

La Liga: No one expected Real Sociedad to be running out in front, but they are. Atletico Madrid is just one point behind and has conceded only twice in nine matches with zero losses! Sociedad has conceded only five times and lost once. As tumultuous of a season as it has been, you can never discount Barcelona, the only other La Liga side with a positive double digit goal differential (+10). Barca (currently 7th) should make its way into the top four shortly. What about Sevilla? They’ve recently made a move and are 5th in the table. Real Madrid is 4th. Some of the pretenders have started to fall off, but I’m still surprised to see Cadiz (-3 GD) and Granada (-6) in 6th and 8th place. Not convinced Villareal (3rd) is going to hold its current position either. One side you may want to look to bet against moving forward is Real Betis, who has the worst goal differential in La Liga (-11) but still sits 15th and out of the relegation zone. Yet they have conceded more times than anybody (23) and have the most losses (7). Those four wins seem fluky.