Ten Best Stats from La Liga’s First Half

The repetitive nature of La Liga has seemed to disappear in this season, leading to some teams surprisingly having a fair chance at winning the title.

190 matches have been played that accounts for the first half of the La Liga Santander season. During that time, some interesting stats have come forth. Here are some of those interesting stats:

• Granada always win when they score first
  The club is the only team who won each one of the eight matches in which they took the lead. On the other hand, Real Madrid, Alaves, Real Mallorca, Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, Getafe, Athletic Club and Real Valladolid haven’t been beaten after taking the lead in their respective matches so far this season.
• More goals than last season
  An impressive 494 goals have already been scored in the 2019/20 season. In this point last year, La Liga clubs have scored 481 goals. Barcelona is the only club who scored the most with 49 while Espanyol is the club with the fewest goals at 15. Villarreal’s 4-4 draw against Granada was the highest-scoring game in the first half of the season.
• Barcelona are winter champions again
  Barca has been winter champions in 12 of the last 16 seasons. In the last three times they achieved this feat, they ended up winning La Liga. However, unlike previous seasons, they aren’t as superior. As proof of this, they’ve only collected 40 points so far and have allowed 23 goals. No other Barcelona-side have gathered so few points and have allowed in so many goals in the last decade.
  
  View La Liga odds on Sportsbet.io

• Oblak, Courtois and Simon: The goalkeeping duel
  Atletico Madrid’s Jan Oblak, Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois and Athletic Club’s Unai Simon have managed to keep nine clean sheets so far this season. The former and the latter have conceded 12 goals, while the Belgian has allowed in nine, having played three games fewer than the other two.
• Messi, Pichichi leader
  For one more time, Lionel Messi is the league’s top scorer with 13 goals in 14 games. He is followed by Karim Benzema, with 12 and Luis Suarez, with 11. Meanwhile, Roger Marti is the Spaniard who has the most goals in LaLiga Santander, as he has managed a 64 percent success rate in Levante’s last nine games.
• Seventy-four penalties awarded
  Referees have given 74 penalties so far this season and 62 of them were converted into goals. Osasuna’s encounter with Alaves and Villarreal’s visit at Real Mallorca were the games with the most spot-kicks awarded so far this season, with three. Meanwhile, Mallorca is the side who have more penalties in favour with seven, while Leganes have fewer than any other team, with just one.
  Read football news on Sportsbet.io
  
• Real Madrid, Real Betis, Celta Vigo, Osasuna and Barcelona collect red cards
  As many as 44 red cards have been shown so far this season, with Real Madrid, Real Betis, Celta Vigo, Osasuna and Barcelona having received four apiece. Meanwhile, Real Sociedad and Sevilla have gone down to 10 men just once so far this season.
• Merino, the player with the most recoveries
  Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino has registered more recoveries than any other LaLiga Santander player this season with 151, followed by Casemiro, with 141 and Osasuna left-back Pervis Estupinan, with 129.

  Words: Carlos Corpus
  Images: PA 

Source Link