Atletico Madrid Keep The Lead With A Win At Bilbao – La Liga Wrap

There are no limits for Atletico Madrid. Even the sceptics – those who have been saying that Diego Simeone’s squad sooner or later would haven’t been a real title contenders – must now cease talking.

On the paper, this weekend should have been favourable to Real Madrid, who played Rayo Vallecano at home, whilst Barça faced Espanyol in the Catalan derby and Atletico visited the hot home of Athletic Bilbao. Eventually  all three teams achieved their task, leaving the top half of the table unchanged.

This past week has been incredibly exciting: Real Madrid lost El Clasico last Sunday and then capitulated in Sevilla on Wednesday. They went from being seven points ahead Barça (if they would have won El Clasico) to three points behind Atletico and two points behind the Catalans.

Real Whistled Despite Winning 5-0

Those two defeats made a great damage to Real and not only on the league’s table, supporters weren’t happy and during the match against Rayo Vallecano whistled the majority of the players. Diego Lopez was the most contested which shows clearly that fans want Iker Casillas as titular.  Not only in Champions League, but also in La Liga, where he has yet to make a single appearance.

However, Real managed to put five past Rayo Vallecano with Cristiano Ronaldo who scored the opener. Despite being whistled, Gareth Bale had a fine night, netting twice and reaching the good figure of 12 goals in his first season at Bernabeu. His second goal was also a typical Bale-action, sprinting from his own box to the other before putting past the keeper.

The final 5-0 (from Dani Carvajal and Alvaro Morata the other goals) alleviates a bit pressure on Carlo Ancelotti, whose main thoughts are now about Champions League and Borussia Dortmund, that his side will face at home next Wednesday.

Atlético Look Even Stronger

If Real’s fans are upset about the recent blows, their “cousins” at Atletico are definitely happier. After re-establishing themselves at the top of the league last Sunday, the Colchoneros consolidated  now the solitary leadership. Playing against Athletic Bilbao and going down after six minutes did not scare Simeone’s squad that fought back and equalized with Diego Costa, as ever the soul of Atletico.

But knowing the result of Barcelona, and expecting Real to get three point, a draw wasn’t enough for them. Atletico needed more. They needed a victory at San Mamés, in a ground where neither Real nor Barça managed to win. Eventually the goal came in the second half, with Koke – a player who is having a wonderful season headed a cross from Felipe past Gorka Iraizoz.

Messi Keeps Barcelona On Track

A contested penalty from Lionel Messi was enough for Barcelona to beat Espanyol in the Catalan derby, although the game hasn’t been easy for Blaugrana. The Argentinean set another record – he had never scored at Cornellà El Prat Stadium since Espanyol moved there in 2009 – breaking the deadlock in last quarter of the second half.

Barcelona started the game without Victor Valdes, who was replaced by Jose Pinto. The titular goalkeeper has been ruled out for at least six months due to a knee injury and his fellow-mates encouraged him wearing a t-shirt with “Força Doble V” written on it.

Since the match began, it seemed plain to see that Espanyol were well prepared to hold Blaugrana and provided to be a hard challenge. The trend of the first half could be easily resumed by the statistics: Barça had 78% of possession while Espanyol made 11 fouls against just three of Barcelona’s.

As usual Barça were good on ball retaining but their dominance didn’t pay off thanks to a great defensive display from the hosts who did not back out of fouling when necessary. Blaugrana failed to speed-up in the final metres and Andres Iniesta was the obvious change to make in order to provide his side with the missing sparkle.

He had been warming for at least 10 minutes, seeing Pique hitting the bar,  and was about to come in when a challenge between Neymar and Javi Lopez was judged by the referee as a penalty. He spotted the handball from the defender, although Espanyol’s players were complaining about the fact that Neymar would have touched first with his ball. Following the complaints, Messi transformed the penalty-kick. Barça are still on track.