Barcelona has practically sentenced the fight for the league title after beating Real Madrid 2-1 in a classic that was resolved between the lack of punch from Carlo Ancelotti’s team when they had options to recover options and two goals in the sections end of both periods, the last work of the Ivorian Franck Kessie in the prolongation.
The victory gives Xavi Hernández’s team a twelve point lead. There is a lot of championship left, but it is a difference that seems practically impossible to overcome for a white team without fangs, with Vinicius Junior practically as the only resource in attack since Karim Benzema proved to be very far from the best version of him.
Ancelotti’s team could not even make the most of the initial own goal by the Uruguayan Ronald Araujo (m.9) by deflecting a cross from Vinicius, which could have been a very hard blow for Barcelona, who had come out with much more bite and who made work Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois more than his team would have liked.
Sergi Roberto, in the last action of the first period, restored the balance to the scoreboard. The draw was a good result for Barcelona to maintain their clear lead. Real Madrid had no choice but to go after the win and, in the midst of a crazy pace from one side of the pitch to the other, they even scored nine minutes from time, but Marco Asensio’s goal was disallowed after review of the VAR for offside.
The punishment for the Madrid team and the prize for the Catalans came in the final extension with a shot from Kessie, who had already been decisive in the first leg of the Copa del Rey in the victory at the Santiago Bernabéu.
While the title is already decided, the fight for the Champions League is looking more and more interesting. If the launched Atlético de Madrid took another big step on Saturday against Valencia (3-0), their pursuers, Real Sociedad, Betis and even Villarreal, did not fail either and won their respective matches.
In this way, Real Sociedad closes the Champions League three points behind Atlético and with a three-point advantage over Betis, which is four more behind Villarreal.
The Basque team got rid of bottom club Elche 2-0 and ended their losing streak at the Reale Arena, where they had not won since January 14. The Japanese Take Kubo (m.48) and Ander Barrenetxea (m.90) penalized the errors of Pablo Machín’s men, whose situation is little short of desperate, with salvation at fourteen points.
Chilean Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis also recovered from their elimination in the Europa League with a narrow victory (1-0) against Mallorca’s Mexican Javier Aguirre, who notably dropped his performance away from home, which prevents him from getting closer to the salvation.
A deflection by Borja Iglesias from a shot by Senegalese Youssouf Sabaly at the beginning of the second period (m.48) left the points at home, eased the penalties after losing to Manchester United, and with this he follows in the wake of Real.
Villarreal, also eliminated in Europe, in his case in the Conference League, against Anderlecht, consolidated sixth place, which he retains with six points of income compared to Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano.
They beat Osasuna 0-3 in a once-fortress fiefdom like El Sadar with goals from Nigerian Samu Chukwueze (m.14) and a brace from José Luis Morales (m.86 and 93), the first of them with a shot from the circle in the center of the field.
It was a very expensive victory for Quique Setién’s team, on the other hand, since they lost Gerard Moreno, Raúl Albiol, Alfonso Pedraza and Ramón Terrats due to injury.
Getafe emerged unscathed from the important duel for the permanence against Sevilla of the Argentine Jorge Sampaoli, the only survivor of Spanish football in the Europa League, who fell at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez (2-0) victim of his failures and the ‘curse of the ex’, since the author of the goal that unbalanced the game at the beginning of the second period was the Spanish-Moroccan Munir El Haddadi.
Munir, who played for three and a half seasons at the Andalusian club, rounded off a good delivery from Borja Mayoral after Joan Jordan failed to get the ball out and punished a Sevilla with a ‘painful’ goal that found no solutions and returned to give a poor image away from Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán against a Getafe that is forging its chances of salvation at home.
The Turkish Enes Unal gave the finishing touch in the extension to round off the victory of the team led by Quique Sánchez Flores. Climb to thirteenth place, with a three-point margin compared to the relegation marked by Valencia.
Sevilla has two in this tremendous struggle for permanence. Between Almería, penultimate, and Mallorca, eleventh, the distance is only six points. EFE