If you’re a fan of La Liga in any shape or form, the following is probably a silly question: did you catch Wednesday night’s El Classico? Real Madrid drew 1-1 with Barcelona in their Copa Del Rey semi final, first leg; a tidy affair that had plenty of talking points, none more-so than the spectacular emergence of Real Madrid defender Raphael Verane. The young Frenchman looked assured at centre back all night, a night where Ricardo Carvalho looked absolutely atrocious. Retirement atrocious. Verane made a crucial goal-line clearance, scored the goal to tie the game and took home man of the match honours too. Not bad for a single night’s work.

Verane has everything: skill, tenacity and pace; the latter was something absent from Madrid’s back-line in recent months. Madrid and Mourinho are frothing at the mouth at the potential this young lad is showing.

Mark it down, remember the name, Raphael Verane is going to be a star!

la Programar 
A look at the live LaLiga action this weekend

Saturday 19:00 Espanyol v Levante SkySports
Saturday 21:00 Granada v Real Madrid SkySports
Sunday 18:00 Valencia v Barcelona SkySports
Sunday 20:00 Atletico Madrid v Betis SkySports

seis de los mejores
Six La Liga tips to boost your BetDash bankroll
(4-2 record to date, 66% success rate)

1. Valladolid v Athletic Bilbao – Valladolid draw no bet 4/6
2. Getafe v Deportivo La Coruna - Getafe to win 10/11
3. Espanyol v Levante – Espanyol to score 2 or more 6/5
4. Granada v Real Madrid - Real Madrid -1 10/11
5. Malaga v Real Zaragoza - Malaga to win 4/7
6. Valencia v Barcelona – over 3.5 goals 6/5

Last week’s results 

1. Real Madrid v Getafe - over 3.5 goals 8/11 Winner! 
2. Celta Vigo v Real Sociedad – Real Sociedad to score 2 or more goals 15/8 Loss 
3. Athletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid – Atletico Madrid draw no bet 4/7 Loss 
4. Barcelona v Osasuna – Barcelona to win both halves 8/11 Winner! 
5. Real Zaragoza v Espanyol – Espanyol +1 8/11 Winner! 
6. Mallorca v Malaga – Malaga draw no bet 4/6 Winner! 

tiempo la competencia
(Competition time!)

Last week’s competition saw a tie for the final result, which means, we have a competition roll-over and a tasty prize of 20 quid in the BetDash account of the winner of our La Liga preview competition. This week, to get your grubby little hands on our cash, simply pick six teams to win this weekend in La Liga and enter in the comment section below with your BetDash user name.  We will give a point per win and the user with the most points will win the full roll-over amount of  20 quid. In the event of a tie the pot will roll forward (again) to the next week!

Answers must be in by the first kick-off time

Good luck, and enjoy the games!