La Liga Table 2016: Sunday’s Week 1 Results and Updated Standings

Manu Garcia Sanchez struck a brilliant equaliser deep into injury time to earn Alaves a 1-1 draw in Atletico Madrid on Sunday. His strike answered Kevin Gameiro’s controversial stoppage-time penalty that had given the hosts a late lead.

Gameiro had struggled on his debut, as had an entire Atletico forward line desperately missing rested talisman Antoine Griezmann. However, Gameiro and his team thought they’d snatched a reprieve when substitute Fernando Torres won a contentious penalty.

By contrast, Real Madrid didn’t need main man Cristiano Ronaldo to get their new La Liga campaign off to a perfect start in Real Sociedad on Sunday. Gareth Bale scored twice, bookending a sweet finish from promising youngster Marco Asensio to cap a 3-0 win at Anoeta, as manager Zinedine Zidane’s squad showed its credentials to challenge Barcelona for this season’s title.

The day’s play began with Athletic Bilbao slipping to a 2-1 defeat in Sporting Gijon, courtesy of goals from Duje Cop and Victor Rodriguez.

Here are the final scores from Sunday’s matches:

Here’s what the standings look like:

Recap

Atletico found newly promoted Alaves difficult to break down during a first half of few chances. The absence of Griezmann proved significant, as new boys Kevin Gameiro and Nicolas Gaitan struggled to pick up the slack.

It was Gameiro who dragged a shot wide, while veteran holding midfielder Tiago hit one straight at goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco from distance. Gameiro had an even better chance with 10 minutes remaining in the half, when Koke pulled a low cross across the box. However, the ex-Sevilla striker lifted his finish over the bar.

Atleti were dominating the ball, but their profligacy in front of goal combined with Alaves’ refusal to come out, made it a stale spectacle, as this fact from Squawka helped illustrate:

Just one chance created for each team in the first half an hour of the game. pic.twitter.com/NKbtNGIVXA

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) August 21, 2016

With Gameiro struggling, manager Diego Simeone brought on Torres for the second half. Good work from the experienced crowd favourite teed up Diego Godin, but the centre-back toed his chance over.

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