Wins for Madrid, Barcelona & Atletico…La Liga round up.

It’s Saturday night and La Liga is about to get going. Champions Barcelona are facing struggling Zaragoza and two of the teams fighting for places in Europe go head to head as Atletico face Villarreal.

F.C. Barcelona  1 v 0 Real Zaragoza

Barcelona sit 7 points clear of Madrid at the top of the table, Zaragoza just 2 points above safety in 15^th. Barcelona have scored 77 goals in 26 league games, Zaragoza have conceded 38 in 26. With the stats against them many people would assume Zaragoza will have been dead and buried before the match began. Zaragoza did have one thing going for them, Barcelona had to play Arsenal on Tuesday, a fixture they have to win.

You would assume, given Barcelona’s lead in the league and necessity to win midweek they would put out a weakened side. In truth they did but it is hard to call a team ‘weakened’ when it included the likes of: Valdes, Messi, Xavi, Alves, Pedro and Pique. Pique being suspended for the Arsenal game.

Barcelona started the game in their usual fashion, quick passing in tight areas, great one two combination and both full-backs deciding to play in the oppositions half. In the same vein as Valencia last week, Zaragoza played a 5-3-2 formation, with 3 centre backs and that’s exactly how they defended. A line of 5, a line of 3 and then the two forward players, Betorlo and former Liverpool man Sinama-Pongelle staying around the half way line. They were happy to sit back and let Barcelona keep the ball and try to counter attack. Zaragoza pushed high up the pitch to prevent Barcelona from having space in the middle of the ground and it worked to an extent as Barcelona looked frustrated but never flustered.

Pedro demonstrates Barca's athleticism. Photo:LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

The goal came just before half time as maestro Messi dribbled into the box, beat three men and then crossed the ball from the by-line for Keita to side-foot home from inside the box. The goal no doubt depleting Zaragoza’s belief that they might just hang on.

The match continued in the same way throughout the second half. Barcelona, pass, pass, pass and Zaragoza, defend, defend and defend. Zaragoza did have some decent chances later on in the game. Pique struggled to deal with long balls over the top on more than one occasion, leading to a couple of half chances and one that Betorlo really should have scored instead of curling it the wrong side of the post. The away side managed to get in some good counter attacking position but due to their small number of players willing to attack they needed to be clinical with their final balls, something they couldn’t do.

Guardiola shows his appreciation despite his back hernia. Photo: Manu Fenandez/AP

The game ended 1-0 and there isn’t much else to say really. Much like Spain at the world cup the game became stagnated because the opposition denied them space to attack. Something you can’t really blame them for.

Atletico Madrid 3 v 1 Villarreal

Now this was a game I was looking forward to. Both teams are capable of playing beautiful football and both teams contain real individual talent. Atletico has Sergio Aguero, Jose Antonio Reyes and former Villarreal player Diego Forlan up front. Villarreal had Nilmar and prolific twitterer Giuseppe Rossi. This game promised goals.

For once a game I had been looking forward to actually delivered. It was Atletico’s Reyes who set the precedent for the game with a superb strike after 5 minutes. A few yards outside the box with three Villarreal players around him, he smashed a physics defying left footed shot up and around the keeper into the top left corner.

Atletico are notorious for being unpredictable but the goal clearly gave them some confidence, most of the match was being played in the Villarreal half with Atletico looking for a second.

It was however Villarreal who scored the next goal to make it 1-1. A Suarez foul on the edge of the box gave Rossi a chance to get Villarreal back in the game. He hammered the ball past the wall and straight into the roof of the net leaving De Gea flailing helplessly in his goal.

The action didn’t relent in the second half either. There was lots of individual skill on show with Aguero and Forlan both coming close on several occasions for Atletico. The stand out man for me though was Atletico’s Phillipe. The defender had real presence going forward, his tricks always came off, they didn’t seem needless and his passing was spot on. The next goal came from a lovely bit of tight one touch passing culminating in Aguero lobbing the rushing keeper from inside the box.

The game was settled three minutes later when Forlan slid the ball past the keeper after a tidy bit of 1-2 with Reyes outside the box.

A much more exciting game than at the Nou Camp, contested by two teams football fans should really look to watch more often. Something which I will most definitely be doing.

Start: 0:35

It wasn’t until Sunday night that Real Madrid had the opportunity to try and close the ever widening gap with Barcelona. At the start of the match Madrid stood 10 points behind with 10 games to go. To win the league Real would need to beat Barcelona at the Bernabeu and hope they would lose an extra three games.

There is a saying that you can only beat what is in front of you and that’s exactly what Madrid did.

Racing de Santander 1 v 3 Real Madrid

Despite being in the bottom half of the table, Racing were in decent form going into the game unbeaten in their last six matches. Madrid were without magician Cristiano Ronaldo, who himself had scored three more league goals than the whole of the Racing squad.  Another change for Madrid was Granero who came into midfield alongside Xabi Alonso and is generally considered a more attacking option to regular Sami Khedira.

Madrid controlled the game right from the start, hitting the post twice before scoring two goals in five minutes. The first came after some precise one touch passing between Benzema, Ozil and finally for Adebayor to side-foot home into an open goal. A goal more accustom to rivals Barcelona, something the Madrid fans will no doubt want to see more of, even if they are unwilling to admit it. The second came five minutes later as Ozil was the constructer again threading through Benzema to place past the keeper inside the box, Ozil’s 11^th league assist of the season.

Madrid celebrate their goal. Photo: Fourfourtwo.com

With Madrid 2-0 up after 30 minutes it looked like the 7-0 thrashing Real gave Racing in the reverse fixture may be better. Madrid coach Mourinho though must have thought otherwise as his face remained constantly neutral despite the two goals. Maybe he knew Madrid’s league challenge was already over or maybe he knew of what was to come.

Madrid continued to contrast and waste chances until the 52^nd minute when Alonso brought down on loan Tottenham man Giovani dos Santos inside the box. Before the penalty Racing’s record stood as taken 4, missed 5. That went to 5 in 6 as Pablo Pinillo wasted the opportunity with an awful attempt.

Racing still threatened to comeback when Kennedy scored a move that involved just six touches from halfway line to back of the net. Their hopes were soon quashed however when Benzema scored for Madrid on the counter. It could have been 4-1 had Adebayor not produced a penalty that had all the tenacity and purpose of Nick Clegg, needless to say he missed.

Match highlights:

Predictable

Barca march on then as Madrid settle into second with the Champions league their priority. The only interesting thing left is who is going to get into Europe and who is going to get relegated. A formula that hasn’t changed for years.