If Celta Vigo beat Real Madrid and top the table, it’ll be no surprise
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Updated 23/10/2015 at 18:10 GMT
Celta Vigo have taken La Liga by storm this season and are unbeaten in eight games. They face Real Madrid on Saturday with a chance to replace them at the top of the table. Graham Ruthven analyses their chances…
Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas (L) celebrates his goal against Barcelona with his team mate Nolito Agudo during their Spanish first division soccer match at Balaidos stadium in Vigo, Spain September 23, 2015.
Image credit: Reuters
Spain’s top-flight has of late become a league infatuated with its attacking trios. Barcelona have the ‘MSN’ - comprising Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. Similarly, Real Madrid have the ‘BBC’ - made up of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo. Celta Vigo also have their own three-pronged frontline, even if they come with no such moniker.
In Iago Aspas, Nolito and Fabian Orellana they have arguably La Liga’s brightest front three right now - although they might want to stay away from applying a similar nicknaming convention, given that ‘ANO’ means ‘anus’ in Spanish.
With a quarter of the Liga season now complete, Celta Vigo sit joint top of the pile - and what’s more, they belong up there too. Under Eduardo Berizzo - and Luis Enrique before him - the Galician club have become an irrepressibly dynamic and entertaining side, with stylistic stubbornness now translating into points and league position. Real Madrid visit the Balaidos on Saturday, meaning Celta could claim top-spot all for themselves.
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Celta Vigo's Nolito (R) celebrates his goal against Atletico Madrid with his teammate Andreu Fontas during their Spanish first division soccer match at the Balaidos stadium in Vigo February 15, 2015. REUTERS/Miguel
Image credit: Reuters
Given the manner with which Berizzo’s side dismantled Liga champions Barcelona just a few weeks ago it’s not such an unthinkable outcome either. Indeed, when Celta Vigo host Real Madrid on Saturday it will have been almost a month to the day since Barcelona suffered a thrashing, a thumping, a drubbing, at the hands of Spain’s most captivating side of the 2015/16 season so far.
That night at the Balaidos, neither Enrique - or his players - had any response in the face of Celta’s wide-eyed Chesire Cat grin of a footballing philosophy. Vigo took Barcelona’s own deep-grooved ideology and ramped it up - like Marty McFly using a guitar amp before school. Barca’s world class squad - including the MSN - visited the Galician coast and were hit by a tsunami of class fronted by Aspas (yes Liverpool fans, the very same Aspas).
But Celta Vigo have impressed on more than just one isolated occasion. Berizzo’s side have claimed wins at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and El Madrigal too, with Celta only a single goal behind Real Madrid as La Liga’s top scorers so far this season. That goal tally illustrates the primary source of their quality as a team - their attack.
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Celta Vigo's coach Eduardo Berizzo reacts during their Spanish first division soccer match against Barcelona at Balaidos stadium in Vigo, Spain September 23, 2015. REUTERS/Miguel Vidal
Image credit: Reuters
Yet with the likes of Pablo Hernandez, Augusto Fernandez, Daniel Wass and Jonny all enjoying stellar campaigns, Celta are about much more than just their frontline. Vigo and Berizzo have a system which raises the game of its subscribers but that’s not to say that their lineup doesn’t comprise quality - as demonstrated by the peak of form so far in Catalonia.
Last week Barcelona once again came up against a side intent on playing their natural, inherently attacking game. It’s an approach that worked for much of the first half, with Rayo Vallecano actually taking the lead at the Camp Nou, but it soon unfolded as Paco’s side eventually fell to a 5-2 defeat. That result emphasised further just how impressive Celta’s win just a few weeks before was.
Unlike Rayo, Vigo had the presence - and more importantly, quality - to play Barcelona at their own game. They could do the same thing against Real Madrid, too - with Nolito bullishly talking up his side’s chances ahead of Saturday’s clash at the Balaidos. "If Celta are on form, we can really hurt Real Madrid,” the recently-capped Spanish international believes, and he’s probably correct.
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Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas celebrates his goal against Barcelona during their Spanish first division soccer match at Balaidos stadium in Vigo, Spain September 23, 2015.
Image credit: Reuters
Looking at those sides that have broken Spain’s Clasico duopoly, Celta Vigo are just as compelling and enthralling as any of them. Rafael Benitez’s Valencia, the Deportivo La Coruna team of around 10 years ago and Atletico Madrid in their second season under Diego Simeone might have been ultimately more successful, but Celta have taken hold of La Liga with similar vigour this season. Although they might be closer, in style, to Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao outfit – and perhaps ultimately doomed to fail in their vision of idealistic glory.
However, there is no sign of such a fate as things stand. Celta Vigo have yet to suffer a Liga defeat this season and show no indication of slowing following their impressive away win over Villarreal last week. They have still to be beaten at the Balaidos, with Real Madrid set to test that invincibility on Saturday.
Just six years ago Celta Vigo found themselves laden with €80 million worth of debt, struggling near the foot of Spanish football’s second tier. Now they can reach the very top of the pyramid - and if they do so this weekend the biggest surprise will be that it won’t be much of a surprise at all on recent form.
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