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| Barca,Atletico,Real continue their charges as La Liga race boils up with two matches remaining. (Photo/Sport.es) |
Football World will be keen to watch how La Liga title race goes in the coming two weeks as leaders Barcelona, Atletico
Madrid and Real Madrid continue pushing onto their dreams of bagging this season’s
accolade. The three teams finished their weekend assignments on Saturday on a positive note leaving things tight as ever. Barca beat 10-man Real Betis 2-0 on Saturday
night courtesy of goals from Ivan Rakitic and Luis Suarez. Earlier on, Antoine
Griezmann’s strike helped Atletico to a 1-0 against Rayo Vallecano while Gareth
Bale’s header earned Real three points in a 1-0 route of Real Sociedad at a
diffucult Anoeta stadium.
Well, this was a topic far from discussion barely a
month ago but an unforgivable mistakes by Barcelona saw them lose three successive
league matches against Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Valencia bringing the race
back on track.
Full concentration, character and some lucky charm are required from all the three sides in each and every game at this moment because a slight slip may prove
costly at the end. Following the weekend wins, Barca and Atletico still lead
the charges with 85 points although the Catalans are above with a head-head
advantage. Real come third on 84 points.
Here are my takes of the task ahead of each of these three teams as well as a final prediction of who may take the title home.
Barcelona
The defending champions will blame themselves for the
change of matters to this heated battle. Before the Clasico tie, Barca were 9
points clear of Atletico and 10 above Real. At this point it was insane to
include the two Madrid teams in the race. However, this is football and now
things are different. The Catalans led by their attacking trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar (MSN) need to forget all about their past and amend their lapse to win the
league, at least for the fans.
Barca has an awaiting derby with Espanyol at Camp Nou before
closing their league season curtain at Granada. Barcelona fans will attest
that Espanyol is not an easy opponent to face at this time when winning is not
an option. The European giants were the better side winning both legs when the
two faced each other in round 16 of Copa Del Rey tie. But before this was a barren
draw at Espanyol in a league match. Such matches provide much intensity and
confrontation among players, something that may interfere with Barca's perfomance.
Luis Enrique need to be cautious and instruct his players to keep it cool and avoid any collision and rough argument with Espanyol players to
achieve what they want the most now.
Another waiting opponent Granada is not a big match
for Barca considering how easy the Catalans have dominated in their past meetings.
However, underrating an opponent at this stage may be a punishable offence, therefore
with Champions League already out of reach, Enrique has all the reasons to
retaining the league and Copa Del Rey final against Sevilla in order to restore
his trust among the club’s stakeholders.
Atletico Madrid
It is no doubt that this teams has performed against all odds both domestically
and continentally, proving that they also belong among the best in Europe. Atletico ended Barca’s dream of becoming the first side to
retain the Champions League title by knocking them out in the quarter final
stage. The Diego Simeone inspired side are also a step away from another final
with a 1-0 lead over Bayern Munich ahead of their return leg in their
semi-final encounter. Simeone will be more delighted if he further inflicts
injury on Barca by denying them the league as well. But first there are two
awaiting fixtures against Levante and Celta Vigo.
It is injustice to say Atletico will fall to
any of these two challenges when they have proved enough they can topple bigger
sides in Europe. Against Levante I see the normal 1-0 win for Atletico, a score
that has dominated in most of their final score boards regardless of the opponents. The trickiest however, will be
Celta Vigo who pulled a 3-2 win in their first leg encounter. Celta’s game is
no more that different from Atletico’s philosophy and this may be a great contest to watch out for at the end. With the champions league in mind, Atletico will need more
concentration as compared to the league leaders in the title race.
Real Madrid
None of Madrid fans could confidently count on their chances of
winning this league few weeks ago, but with a spirited side led by Zinedine Zidane anchored by Barca's misfortunes, things
are finally changing for the Los Blancos. Similarly to their city rivals, Real
are few minutes from reaching the final of the Champions league after securing a barren
draw at Manchester City in their first leg encounter. A return leg at Barnebeu
will determine whether they proceed to another final to claim a record 11th
champions league title.
In Spain, all that Real need is win their remaining two
matches against Valencia and Deportivo hoping Barca and Atletico draw or lose
one of their two ties.
Deportivo is not a major scare for the Los Blancos
with their recent encounters leaving Depo badly damaged. However, a slight
challenge will come from Valencia. The two teams have produced a 2-2 draw in
their past two meetings meaning Real need to toil hard to earn three points
against this side. This will undoubtedly be a close fight keeping in mind
Valencia’s 2-1 win over Barcelona at Camp Nou last month. With Zidane at the
stands, i see Real completing these tasks on a high note at any cost.
Final Prediction
The Madrid teams are still active in the Champions League but and an exit before La Liga ends may trouble them psychologically.
I see no major changes in the table at the end of the league with Barca claiming the title on a head-head advantage over Atletico with Real maintaining their third spot.
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