The Spanish Primera Liga will finally go down to the wire; at least it seems to go that way. Real Madrid’s late salvo against Athletico Bilbao ensured that they are still holding on to the coattails of defending champions Barcelona. There may be talk of discontent between the two players but perennial scorers, Gonzalo Higuain and Christiano Ronaldo, were once again on the score sheet as they finished off Bilbao 5-1.
Barcelona themselves saw off the supposedly tricky challenge of Seville as they kept themselves on course to defending their Spanish league title. The Catalan giants were forced to endure a few last nervous moments against the Andalucían side as they threatened to make an improbable comeback in the latter parts of the game.
However, Real Madrid’s win keeps the title race alive until the last weekend of the season. Their win was built, predictably upon the scoring prowess of an Argentinean and a Portuguese. Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo struck the crucial goals in their win against Bilbao as the new Galacticos showed that they intend to slug it out until the end. The two attackers has netted an incredible 51 league goals between them in 56 goals before this fixture and Madrid’s reliance on the two showed as Ronaldo fired the home side ahead from the penalty spot after 22 minutes. This capped off an impressive performance from the former FIFA world player of the year who had also scored his hat trick for Real Madrid in midweek against Real Mallorca in their 4-1 win. After Athletico defender Fernando Amorebieta was sent off, a penalty was awarded. Nevertheless, the plucky visitors slugged it out, threatening to spoil the party as club captain Fran Yeste equalized four minutes before half time to make it 1-1.
Despite dominating the game with 76% of the possession and having 49 shots against 10 of Bilbao, Madrid were only able to break down the barn door in the last 17 minutes as they ran riot. Higuain continued his quest for the top scorer prize in the league as he fired them ahead on 73 minutes. This goal was further augmented by Sergio Ramos (80 minutes), Karim Benzema (81 minutes), and Marcelo (89 minutes) as the home side swept to their 18th win in 19 fixtures at home. Of course, that one defeat is the all-important crucial defeat to title-defenders Barcelona. If only Madrid had won that.
However, they did not go into the final weekend as underdogs with a trip to Malaga in the offing. Barcelona will fight against Valladolid on home soil, hoping to make it two consecutive league titles.
The Catalan giants' easy passage next weekend only came about courtesy of their 3-2 win against Seville. Barcelona was quick off the blocks at the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, in what was expected to be a tricky fixture. Lionel Messi gave Barcelona the lead after just five minutes with a cool finish. In what seems to be an ominous sign for record signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pedro and Bojan Krkic were preferred to the Swede in a three pronged attack. In addition, the formation seemed to work as Bojan doubled their lead on 28 minutes.
Playing fluid, quick incisive football, the team kept a monopoly on the possession. It seemed that Barcelona had buried the game when the third striker, Pedro got in on the act to score on 62 minutes and effectively seal the points. This came after Sevilla had been reduced to ten men after a red card for Adboulay Konko.
Under increasingly unlikely circumstances, Sevilla managed to conjure up two goals in three quick time minutes. First Frederic Kanoute on 69 minutes and then Luis Fabiano on 71 minutes suddenly brought the game back to unlikely life. Barcelona required a calming of nerves and a rearguard action to ensure that they left Andalucía with points in the bank. At this time of the season, manager Pep Guardiola would not really be concerned about the second half’s performance, just that that they got the points required.
With the season effectively down to a cup final, Barcelona will be confident they can put aside their European disappointment and clinch the league next week.
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