Updated27. January 2024, 9:23 p.m.
Football: Real Madrid takes control, Barça sinks
The Merengues overthrew Las Palmas (1-2) to temporarily take the lead in La Liga. Their Barcelona rival sank to Villarreal (3-5).
Aurélien Tchouameni (right) scored the winning goal for Real Madrid on the Las Palmas pitch on Saturday.
AFP
Aurélien Tchouaméni as savior. The French midfielder, who came on in the second half, allowed Real Madrid to temporarily regain first place by overthrowing Las Palmas (1-2) at the end of the match, Saturday during the 22nd day of La Liga. For its part, FC Barcelona sank a little more against Villarreal (3-5).
Tchouaméni placed an unstoppable cross header on a corner perfectly taken by Kroos to give Real the advantage (84th) on his 24th birthday. His second goal of the season allows the Madrilenians to take first place two steps ahead of Girona, traveling to Celta Vigo on Sunday. The Madrilenians will in any case have the opportunity to put pressure on the Catalans on Thursday in Getafe, in a late match of the 20th day.
Real are still undefeated in La Liga since their loss (3-1) in the Madrid derby against Atlético in September 2023.
Jude Bellingham suspended
As against Almeria last week (3-2), Carlo Ancelotti’s men had to work to come back and win three important points in the title race. Deprived of their providential man Jude Bellingham, who was suspended, they first came up against the defense of the Canaries, who lacked realism in punishing the Blancos in the first half. The locals ended up opening the scoring on the counter with a colossal piece of work from Sandro Ramirez, finished straight at the near post by Javi Muñoz (53rd, 1-0).
But the Merengues once again found the resources to get back into the game. Eduardo Camavinga found Vinicius with a superb overhead ball then the Brazilian concluded with a cross shot from the left (66th, 1-1), before Aurélien Tchouaméni freed his team with a header (84th, 2 -1).
Barça is scuttled
The Barça of Pedri (right) and Ilkay Gundogan (left) experienced a black Saturday.
Imago
With worrying feverishness, FC Barcelona sank at the end of added time against Villarreal (3-5) at the end of a crazy match where they had turned the situation around in 12 minutes, plunging a little further into crisis . Still 3rd, the reigning champion is now 10 lengths from its eternal rival Real Madrid and 8 from its astonishing neighbor Girona (2nd).
The Catalans waited until they were down 0-2 in the 55th minute to show a little more dignity and revive thanks to Gundogan (60th, 2-1), Pedri (68th, 2-2) and a goal against his side of Eric Bailly (72nd, 3-2). But they cracked a third time in front of Guedes (84th, 3-3), before completely collapsing in added time by conceding two new goals from Sorloth (90th+9, 3-4) and Morales (90th+12, 3-5).
Eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday by Bilbao in overtime (4-2) and humiliated in the final of the Super Cup against its rival Madrid (4-1), the Blaugrana club is getting dangerously close to a blank season. A poor performance which would, by his own admission, push Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez to leave the club.
A little earlier in the afternoon, Real Sociedad lost new points in the race for Europe against Rayo Vallecano (0-0) and lost their Franco-Spanish defensive pillar Robin Le Normand to injury. The Basques remain 6th but could find themselves 7 lengths behind their neighbors Athletic Bilbao (5th), who travel to Cadiz on Sunday.
(AFP)