Heading into this weekend, the eyes of the football world will focus on the Santiago Bernabeu and this season’s version of ‘El Clasico’.

La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the Spanish landscape – winning 32 and 22 league titles respectively – and are currently two of Europe’s in-form clubs.

Last season, their supremacy in La Liga was overcome by Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid side. Los Colchoneros drew at the Camp Nou on the last day of the 2013-14 campaign to become the first Spanish club – outside of Real Madrid and Barcelona – to win the Primera Division since Valencia claimed the title in 2004.

Cynics continue to claim that La Liga is a ‘two team’ league with the remaining Spanish clubs used as doormats while Barca or Real Madrid march to another league title year in and year out.

But there is more to the Spanish football than these two European giants.

Atletico Madrid have re-established themselves in Spain and Europe over the past five seasons, using Europa League success as a springboard to domestic triumphs. Sevilla are posed to go joint-top of La Liga, provided they take care of business against always solid Villarreal side, and should Real Madrid defeat Barcelona this weekend.

Also, after missing out on the Champions League last season, Valencia have started the new campaign strong and look to be on their way back towards European qualification.

Outside of Barcelona and Real Madrid there are always a number of teams which make La Liga interesting and competitive every year.

While the Premier League is considered the toughest division from top to bottom in Europe, it can be argued that England’s current top half would have a difficult time beating the top six clubs from Spain over two legs.

Also – with the exception of Chelsea – the majority of what are now considered to be the Premier League’s top clubs (Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham, Everton) would be hard pressed to take a point off of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

English sides have placed an emphasis on Champions League qualification. Europa League qualification is looked on as a hindrance or a drain on clubs’ domestic campaigns.

But Spanish clubs don’t share the same philosophy. They look at European competition as a chance to improve their play and expose their teams to different atmospheres and playing styles; and Europa League successes are pointed to proudly.

Since the 2003-04 season there have been eleven Europa League champions, with six coming from La Liga. The lone English side to win the competition during that time was Chelsea.

Silverware is silverware. Cups are cups.

Yes, Barcelona and Real Madrid are giants of world football. But year in and year out Spain continues to produce European forces outside of their ‘top two’, and this season is no different.

Atletico Madrid –

It goes without saying that Atletico Madrid are currently one of the top teams in Europe. They present the biggest threat to Barcelona and Real Madrid’s dominance of the Primera Division.

Manager Diego Simeone has built a team that mirrors his playing style from the time he was an Argentina international. While the Barca and Real play an ‘attractive’ and ‘beautiful’ brand of football, Atletico grinds out results with a total commitment and effort from every member of its squad.

Simeone’s side will hit opponents with wave after wave of players fighting to win the ball on every possession as a unit. When they do concede possession and sit back in defence, they have a squad capable of scoring off counter attacks and Los Rojiblancos are masters scoring from set pieces.

Atletico’s ascent has been on display for the past five seasons. In spite of selling some of their most prized assets, the Atleti have made a Champions League final appearance, won two Europa League titles, two UEFA Super Cups, a Copa del Rey, a La Liga title and a Spanish Supercopa.

They currently are on top of their Champions League group on goal differential (a group that also features Olympiacos and Juventus) and are currently sitting in fifth place in La Liga.

Sevilla –

Sevilla could be the early surprise in the Primera Division. The difficulty in calling the club a ‘surprise’ is that they are the reigning Europa League champions (Sevilla have won the competition three times).

Although the Spanish campaign is only entering into its ninth week of competition, not many football experts projected Unai Emery’s side to be this high on the La Liga table. Even Sevilla’s president Jose Castro has stated that his club’s start has been ‘unreal’. Especially since Los Nervionenses have suffered from considerable financial instability which has forced the club to sell some of its best players.

In the past few seasons Sevilla have sold Alvaro Negredo (Man City/Valencia), Jesus Navas (Man City), Alberto Moreno (Liverpool) and Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona), to name a few.

But there they are, second place in the league and poised to join Barcelona at the top of the table – should Carlo Ancelotti’s men defeat their bitter rivals on Saturday and Sevilla defeat Villarreal.

In spite of player departures and the arrival of a new manager, Sevilla have started the 2014-15 season by winning six of their first eight league fixtures.

Regardless of the start they won’t be considered serious challengers in Spain until they prove they can beat one of La Liga’s better sides. To this point, Sevilla have drawn with Valencia and were beaten handedly by Atletico Madrid (4-0) in a match that had tremendous buildup prior to kick-off.

But Unai Emery has stated that he feels his side is still adjusting to the loss of key personnel over the summer and have yet to play their best football.

Not bad for a side that is second in the Primera Division to Barcelona and are currently on top of their group in the Europa League.

Valencia –

Before the start of the 2014-15 La Liga campaign, it was expected that Valencia would be challenging for the final Champions League spot in the Primera Division along with the likes of Sevilla, Villarreal and Atheltic Bilbao.

What Los Che had in the favor was the fact that all of their top four competitors were involved in European competition. While Valencia would prefer to be playing Champions League or Europa League football (this is the first time since 2004-05 that they have missed out on Europe) they have taken advantage of their exclusion from the competition.

At the conclusion of last season, Nuno Espirito Santo was brought in to replace Antonio Pizzi. The Portuguese boss had previously managed Rop Ave from 2012-14 and during his second season had orchestrated the club’s second place finish in both the Portuguese Cup and Portuguese League Cup.

Nuno Santo’s men have shown a proclivity for hitting teams on the counter attack during the early part of the season. Valencia have a good mix of veteran players and youth, with a balance of technical skill in the midfield and strong full-back play in defence.

While other clubs have had to worry about stretching their squads week after week, Valencia players have had time to recover, work on their tactics and build team chemistry.

The moment of the early season came during their round of seven La Liga match with reigning La Liga champions, Atletico Madrid. Los Che took advantage of the fact that Atletico had played two tough matches (against Sevilla and Juventus) in the week leading up to their encounter and jumped on the Spanish champions in the first thirteen minutes of the contest.

An own-goal from Miranda, then a goal one minute later from Andre Gomes, followed by a dagger from Nicolas Otamendi in the thirteenth minute sent the Mestalla Stadium into hysterics and put Atletico Madrid in a 3-0 hole they would never recover from.

Despite a setback against Real Deportivo last weekend, Nuno Santos’ side sit fourth on the La Liga table – and they have yet to unleash former Manchester City striker Alvaro Negredo onto their Spanish opponents.

It appears that Valencia’s absence from European competition will be a brief one.

Villarreal –

If it wasn’t for El Clasico, the Spanish game of note this weekend would have likely been Sevilla v. Villarreal.

Entering the match against second-place Sevilla, Villarreal have won two consecutive league matches to catapult themselves back into the race for La Liga’s final Champions League spot.

Prior to the season, manager Marcelino Garcia Toral was expected to have his side competing for European qualification, and he has done that to this point.

In recent years, Villarreal have regularly played in Europe.

They made their major European debut in 2003-04, reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, before losing to their rivals and eventual champions, Valencia. The following season they lost in the quarter-finals of the competition.

In 2005-06, they defeated David Moyes’ Everton side in the Champions League play-off and made it to the semi-finals Europe that season. During the 2008-09 Champions League, they were knocked out of the quarter-finals by Arsenal. The next year Villarreal lost to Wolfsburg in the round of 32 of the Europa League and fell to Porto in the semi-finals the year after that (a Porto side that featured Radamel Falcao).

Villarreal currently features Spain international defensive midfielder Bruno Soriano – who is also club captain. As well as Nigerian star striker Ikechukwu Uche and ex-Tottenham midfielder Giovani Dos Santos.

The club warmed up for their domestic league campaign by dismissing Swansea City 3-0 during their final pre-season friendly in Wales. Villarreal opened La Liga’s season with a hard fought 1-0 loss to Barcelona and recently dropped another difficult decision to Real Madrid, 2-0. But despite those setbacks, they have put themselves within striking distance of the top four in La Liga in recent weeks by defeating Almeria and a vastly improved Celta Vigo side.

Villarreal are also on top of Group A in the Europa League after defeating Zurich 4-1 on Thursday.

Petequinn

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