The 2009/10 La Liga Relegation Thread

Well, with 4 rounds to go before the half way point of the season here is the bottom half of the table:

10 Sporting 20
11 Valladolid 16
12 Osasuna 16
13 Espanyol 16
14 Tenerife 15
15 Atlético 14
16 Racing 13
17 Almería 13
18 Málaga 12
19 Zaragoza 12
20 Xerez 7

Xerez, prime relegation candidates from the start, are situated firmly at the bottom of the table. Thought Malaga would be better but after changing what seemed like all of their team over the summer perhaps it should not come as a surprise. I am somewhat surprised Racing and Zaragoza have been as bad as they are. I don't think anyone would have thought Atletico would be where they are but they still are not showing any signs of recovery.

So.......who's going down?

Xerez look like an easy choice...too early to call the other 2 spots...managerial changes will come thick and fast in the next half of the season. I expect Zaragoza to recover, and Racing also are showing good signs after their managerial change. Tenerife to fall back, perhaps?

Can Atletico repeat Betis last season achievement ?

Bottom half of the table at the moment:

10 Villarreal 26
11 Racing 25
12 Atlético 24
13 Sporting 24
14 Espanyol 23
15 Almería 22
16 Málaga 21
17 Zaragoza 20
18 Valladolid 18
19 Tenerife 17
20 Xerez 11

Two matches between relegation candidates this weekend:

Valladolid - Zaragoza PPV Dom-17:00
Racing - Málaga PPV Dom-17:00

So just 3 games to go now, and it's really close at the bottom. Yesterday's results:

Tenerife 2 Racing 1
Málaga 1 Sporting 1
Valladolid 0 Getafe 0
Xerez 2 Almería 1
Deportivo 0 Zaragoza 1

Huge win for Xerez (with a 90th minute goal! ), while Tenerife also built on their good home form by beating a Racing that are on a terrible run.

Zaragoza take advantage of a good schedule (as it is for any team facing Deportivo at this stage of the season) to get a crucial away win.

Valladolid, Malaga, and Sporting all get what is a pretty useless point each.



This is how the bottom looks now (I'll assume teams from Osasuna upwards are safe).

13. Almeria - 38
14. Sporting - 38
15. Zaragoza - 37
16. Racing - 36
17. Malaga - 35
18. Tenerife - 35
19. Valladolid - 33
20. Xerez - 30



Remaining fixtures for each of the teams:

Almeria: Villarreal (H), Tenerife (A), Sevilla (H)
Sporting: Getafe (A), Atletico (H), Racing (A)
Zaragoza: Espanyol (H), Xerez (A), Villarreal (H)
Racing: Sevilla (H), Valladolid (A), Sporting (H)
Malaga: Athletic (A), Getafe (A), R. Madrid (H)
Tenerife: Barcelona (A), Almeria (H), Valencia (A)
Valladolid: Atletico (A), Racing (H), Barcelona (A)
Xerez: Valencia (A), Zaragoza (H), Osasuna (A)


It's pointless trying to predict on a game by game basis, because there are so many variables that could change:

For example, if Mallorca and Sevilla fail to win today, Valencia are assured of 3rd. I wouldn't be surprised to see Xerez get something out of that game then.

Similarly (although less likely considering how incapable they are of winning games), Valladolid will be hoping Barça have the league won before the last day.

Plus there's always the unknown factor of the "briefcases" that go around at this time of year

But if I had to predict, I'd say Malaga are surely going down along with Valladolid and Xerez. You can easily see them getting 0 points out of their last 3 games (though considering they've swapped football for kickboxing in the past few weeks, I'd love to see them face Madrid on the last day with a chance of staying up...what a rugby game that'll be )

Racing better get their form together too. They must win at least one of the Valladolid or Sporting games.

The interesting thing is that a lot of the relegation candidates have matches against teams that are pushing either for the last CL spot or a EL spot.

I think Tenerife may well save themselves. They'll most likely get a point in the Camp Nou but home to Almeria and away to Valencia who have nothing left to play for it's feasible they can take 4-6 points from those last two matches.

I think kas is right though at this point Malaga have to be the favourites to drop. Huge 3 points at the weekend for Zaragoza otherwise I would have thought they would be prime candidates.

I see Xisco is leaving his mark.

Update: I think Zaragoza and Sporting are more or less safe now, while Xerez and Valladolid are probably down.

Between Tenerife/Malaga/Racing for the last spot. My money's still on Malaga...but they absolutely must get 3 pts against Getafe on Saturday otherwise it's probably all over.

Proper "6 pointer" between Racing and Valladolid this weekend

Update with 1 game to go...I can't remember a tighter relegation battle in any league in my years of following football:

16. Valladolid - 36
17. Racing - 36
18. Malaga - 36
19. Tenerife - 36
20. Xerez - 33

Nobody's down yet, and it's very likely to come down to a "mini-league" situation where multiple teams end up on the same amount of points and have to be separated via their head-to-head records.

Remaining fixtures:

Sporting-Racing
Malaga-R.Madrid
Valencia-Tenerife
Barcelona-Valladolid
Osasuna-Xerez

I think Xerez, Tenerife, and Malaga are going down.

Up north they're taking about the Llanes pact, between Sporting & Racing, seeing that Sporting has nothing to play for.

Yeah, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few "briefcases" get passed to Osasuna (though I don't think Xerez have any money ) and Valencia. Both have nothing to play for.

Here are the head to head aggregate scores:

Valladolid v Racing (3-2)
Valladolid v Malaga (1-1)
Valladolid v Tenerife (3-3)
Valladolid v Xerez (0-3)

Racing v Malaga (2-4)
Racing v Tenerife (3-2)
Racing v Xerez (5-4)

Malaga v Tenerife (3-3)
Malaga v Xerez (3-5)

Tenerife v Xerez (2-2)

Interesting the Malaga win the tiebreaker against everyone aside from Xerez. And Valladolid only win the tiebreaker against Racing. Hopefully that will motivate them to get all three points from their last game!

I think it will be Valladolid, Malaga, and Xerez going down.

Does Xisco actually play? If Racing stay up will they buy the fucker?

Kimbo wrote:Does Xisco actually play? If Racing stay up will they buy the fucker?

He's played a bit but mostly as a sub from what I've seen. Scored a couple of goals I think. Racing don't really have any money so unless you give him a free transfer I doubt they'll be in for him on a permanent deal.