La Liga Hangover: Atletico and Barcelona Still Neck and Neck, Bale to the Rescue

Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a light-hearted, though in-depth, look at the key stories and talking points from the most recent weekend of action in Spanish football’s top flight. With a focus on the biggest teams, such as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a worthwhile nod toward the rest, we examine how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.

 

Baled Out Again

Sandwiched between two vital UEFA Champions League semi-final legs, it was no surprise to see Saturday’s games for Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid contain numerous changes to each manager’s XI. Both still left a handful of key starters in place, though, more so Real Madrid, and it showed with a less-than-impressive display.

As with the previous week’s outing against Rayo Vallecano, Gareth Bale came to Real’s rescue, missing three of four headed chances at goal before finally getting one right, timing his run across the defender and powering in an effort inside the near post. With only 10 minutes or so remaining, it looked as though Real Sociedad might put a defining dent in Zinedine Zidane’s team’s title hopes, but the Welshman proved the difference.

With no Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema, Real’s attacking was woefully one-dimensional. Bale’s telling impact kept Real’s winning run going and briefly sent his side top of La Liga again.

The theme of repeating the previous week continued as Atletico and Barcelona both took turns to go top of the table too, leaving the end result as you were.

Neither hit top gear, and neither had an easy path to victory, but both deserved the win—although in the case of league leaders Barca, it was a red card for opponents Real Betis that changed the course of the game, while Atleti relied on early second-half substitutions to alter the flow and provide the win.

Three teams, two games left and one point separating them.

As much a definition of the title race going to the wire as ever there was.

 

Jornada 36 Results

Sporting Gijon 2-0 Eibar

Real Sociedad 0-1 Real Madrid

Atletico Madrid 1-0 Rayo Vallecano

Real Betis 0-2 Barcelona

Granada 3-2 Las Palmas

Athletic Bilbao 2-1 Celta Vigo

Espanyol 1-0 Sevilla

Deportivo La Coruna 0-2 Getafe

Valencia 0-2 Villarreal

Malaga vs. Levante, Monday 7:30 p.m. BST KO 

 

Unai Emery’s Troubling Decisions

Top five last season, UEFA Europa League winners the past two campaigns and in the semi-final of that competition again this season—everything looks pretty good for Sevilla by those standards, so why has Unai Emery been unable to push his team to victory on the road this term?

Sevilla have one away game left this term, at San Mames on the …

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