La Liga Matchweek 7 Results: Atletico Take the Derby as Barcelona Pull Clear

Matchweek 7 delivered exactly the kind of Spanish weekend you want in September: a tense Madrid derby, another Barcelona win, more questions around Real Madrid and a few results that seriously reshaped the table. Before kick-off, the 888STARZ line had Real Madrid as favourites in the derby at 2.02. The Metropolitano had other ideas.

Atletico Madrid 2-1 Real Madrid: the derby stays red and white

The first half was more physical than fluent. The real game began after the break.

Dean Huijsen was sent off early in the second half, leaving Real Madrid with ten men. Atletico punished them quickly: Alejandro Grimaldo converted from the spot, and Jonathan David made it 2-0 six minutes later.

Antonio Rudiger pulled one back in the 89th minute, but Real had run out of time.

Before the game, Real Madrid were priced at 2.02, with Atletico at 3.74. Once the red card arrived, those numbers stopped mattering. Atletico handled the derby better and made the extra man count.

The win moved Atletico up to 16 points, one ahead of Real Madrid.

Sevilla 1-3 Barcelona: seven wins from seven and another Raphinha hat-trick

Barcelona conceded first again. It still didn’t matter.

Youssouf Fofana put Sevilla ahead in the 18th minute, but Raphinha equalised just four minutes later. After half-time, the Brazilian scored twice more to complete his hat-trick.

Raphinha now has 12 goals in seven league games, while Barcelona remain perfect.

Barca had been as short as 1.23 before kick-off, and there was no upset here. Even going behind early did little to knock Hansi Flick’s side out of rhythm.

Seven games, seven wins, 21 points. Atletico are five back. Real Madrid are six behind.

Valencia 2-3 Real Sociedad: five goals and another frustrating night at Mestalla

Sunday’s most open game came at Mestalla.

The pre-match line reflected how close the teams looked: 2.79 on Valencia, 2.67 on Real Sociedad. The match played out exactly that way, swinging from one side to the other before the visitors had the final say.

Real Sociedad won 3-2 and took a valuable three points away from home.

For Valencia, it was another frustrating step backwards after beating Alaves in the previous round. Finding any kind of consistency after the coaching change is still proving difficult.

For Sociedad, this felt like the sort of away win that can give a season some momentum.

Two More Results Worth Talking About

Celta Vigo 5-0 Racing Santander

This was the breakout performance.

Celta had not won a league game before the weekend and had scored only three goals across six rounds.

Then they scored five in one afternoon.

Hugo Gonzalez, Ilaix Moriba, Miguel Roman and Pablo Duran, twice, all found the net.

Celta had been 1.88 favourites, but almost nobody would have expected a scoreline like this. Their first win of the season arrived in spectacular fashion.

Espanyol 1-3 Elche

This one was a proper upset.

Espanyol were priced at 1.88, while Elche were out at 4.63. The visitors still walked away with a 3-1 win and their first victory of the season.

Elche had started the weekend without a win and near the bottom of the table. One strong away performance changed the mood completely.

For Espanyol, it was another painful result at home.

All La Liga Matchweek 7 Results

After the weekend, the picture at the top looks much cleaner.

Barcelona are seven wins from seven. Atletico won the biggest game of the round and moved above their city rivals, while Real Madrid have now lost twice in the league and once again left plenty of questions about how well they control difficult matches.

The round wasn’t only about the giants either.

Celta finally exploded with five goals, Elche got their first win on the board and Real Sociedad came away from Mestalla with one of the most entertaining victories of the weekend.