Barcelona came from behind to beat Villarreal 2-1 and keep their La Liga title challenge on track on a weekend that saw both Madrid teams drop points as the league season reaches its climax.
This is the best title race in Europe and the Catalans have just edged ahead in the latest La Liga 2021 betting odds as leaders Atletico Madrid had a disaster in the Basque country, losing 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao, while Real Madrid drew 0-0 at home to Real Betis.
Only three points separate the top four as Sevilla continued their winning to run to stay in the picture.
Winner: Antoine Griezmann, Barcelona
A trip away to seventh-placed Villarreal was never going to be an easy prospect as the Yellow Submarine came into the game with three league wins in the last four. Arguably, Villarreal might have had one eye on their forthcoming Europa League semi-final against Arsenal but they put up a good fight against the Catalans. But there was little they could do to stop Antoine Griezmann who helped himself to a first-half double.
With 26 minutes on the clock, Samuel Chukwuese fired Villarreal ahead from a tight angle but the lead lasted just two minutes before Griezmann pounced and, ten minutes later he finished clinically to score his and Barca’s second. The France striker hasn’t found life easy since his switch to Barcelona two years ago, but this type of performance will do him the world of good.
The Yellow Submarine was well and truly sunk when Manuel Trigueros was red-carded for a foul on Lionel Messi.
Winners: Sevilla
Here at SBOTOP we’ve been watching Sevilla closely. While the two Madrid clubs and Barca flirted with a European breakaway and seemingly battle it out for the La Liga title, Julen Lopetegui’s team has quietly gone about its business and now sits a single point behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, and just three off the top.
A first-half penalty converted by Ivan Rakitic sent Los Sevillanos on their way to a 2-1 win over Granada and when Lucas Ocampos doubled the lead early in the second half the points were in the bag. Roberto Soldado scored a last-minute penalty for the visitors but they couldn’t stop Sevilla from recording a fifth league victory on the bounce, each win by a single goal. They are the form team in Spain at the moment and if they can win their next five games then we might have a really big story to tell!
Winner: Lucas Boye, Elche
Elche jumped out of the bottom three in the La Liga table thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Levante. Lucas Boye was the man to score the crucial goal, taking a pass from Tete Morente and hitting a perfect cross shot into the bottom left corner. Levante bossed possession but Elche won the shot count by eight to six and three to one on target so they deserved their victory, though they had to endure seven minutes of injury time.
The new boys have given themselves a chance of a second season at the top table.
Losers: SD Huesca
After seeing Elche leapfrog over them and out of the bottom three Huesca had a chance to emulate them with a Sunday lunchtime match against Getafe. But they simply couldn’t handle Enes Unal as the 23-year-old Turkish international helped himself to a brace in a 2-0 win. Huesca stay 19th and three points from safety.
Loser: Florentino Perez
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has hogged the football headlines throughout last week following his failed bid to set up a European Super League; and he still hasn’t given up, claiming that the nine clubs which have pulled out cannot leave due to ‘binding contracts’, but Los Blancos, along with Barcelona and Juventus are the only three teams yet to abandon the breakaway competition.
And then, back to matters on the pitch, Perez watched his team put in a less than super performance to draw a blank in a goalless draw with Real Betis. With 17 shots and five on target, Los Blancos had plenty of opportunities but lacked the cutting edge of champions. Betis have made a habit of drawing in recent weeks and this was their fifth stalemate in a row.
Losers Athletic Bilbao or Atletico
Bilbao had drawn five on the bounce too but they went one better against the league leaders to make it a bad end to the weekend for Los Rojiblancos.
Atletico Madrid players looking dejected losing to Athletic Bilbao at San Mames Stadium
When Athletic striker Alex Berenguer nodded home from close range there were only eight minutes on the clock and it took until the 77th for Atleti to equalise, centre back Stefan Savic heading in from a corner. But Atleti couldn’t even hang on for a point as Inigo Martinez emulated Savic, meeting a corner and planting his header in the net.
This weekend’s La Liga 2021 results couldn’t have gone much better for Barcelona. While both the Madrid clubs had to settle for a single point the Blaugrana arguably had the harder fixture away to Villarreal, but they did the business and are now in pole position.
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The post La Liga: Advantage for Barca as Madrid Clubs Falter appeared first on SBOTOP.