La Liga Roundup: Real Madrid and Barcelona win while Atletico crash out of title race
A thrilling set of matches in La Liga came to its conclusion on the penultimate week in the league as Barcelona and Real Madrid both won but Atletico dropped out of the title race after their defeat.
This means the title race will go down to the wire with Barcelona currently on 88 points, Real Madrid on 87 and Atletico Madrid on 85.
Ronaldo’s brace helps Madrid beat Valencia
Real Madrid defeated Valencia 3-2 in a thrilling encounter at the Santiago Bernabeu to take the La Liga title race right down to the last day. The result leaves Real with 87 points, one behind Barcelona, and two ahead of Atletico Madrid.
Los Blancos were dealt a major blow before kick-off when Luka Modric was pulled out of the squad as a precaution, citing a muscle injury. For a team already missing Gareth Bale and Keylor Navas, it was pretty bad news.
The first half saw Real dominate possession, as they looked to play the ball, and get in behind Los Che. Though there were no real chances in the first 25 minutes, the home side took the lead through Cristiano Ronaldo in the 26th, after being fed the ball by Marcelo. Immediately after that, James Rodriguez almost got into the box, but Valencia cleared the danger.
The next chance fell to Lucas Vasquez, who was set up by a lovely cross from Marcelo, but his header was saved by Diego Alves. Valencia then missed a great opportunity as Paco Alcacer and Cancelo contrived to let an open goal situation go begging, with the eventual shot going over.
Karim Benzema then doubled Real’s lead in the 42nd minute, scoring after his first attempt was saved very well by Alves in goal. The goal had a doubt of offside surrounding it, but the referee had no doubts.
The second half saw the visitors come out reinvigorated, and they got their just rewards in the 55th minute, Rodrigo thrashing the ball into an open goal. Immediately after that, Ronaldo scored his second of the night to double Madrid’s lead again, running onto a through ball from James, before finishing with aplomb past Alves.
Kiko Casilla then made a wonderful double save, thwarting Paco Alcacer first, before getting down to save a shot from just inside the box on the second attempt. Los Che then should have scored, with Santi Mina’s lovely work finding Andre Gomes in the box, but his shot with the goal at his mercy going way over the crossbar.
In what was a heartwarming moment, Alvaro Arbeloa came on to a standing ovation, in what was his final appearance as a Real Madrid player at the Santiago Bernabeu. A bizarre moment then saw Rodrigo sent off, for what was eventually ruled to be dissent against the referee.
With Valencia down to 10 men for the last 10 minutes, Real held on to take the title race to the 38th week of the season.
Suarez scores twice as Barcelona thrash Espanyol
Barcelona came into this game with the hopes their rivals would slip up. With their front three firing again the fans expected to beat their Catalan rivals with ease. Espanyol before the game were 5 points above the drop zone and needed a win to ensure their safety for next season.
Espanyol had barely had a touch of the ball when Barcelona scored the opening goal. Barca were awarded a foul in Messi territory before the first quarter of the game.The Argentine stepped up and placed it beautifully in the right-hand top corner of the net, giving his side the lead.
There were a lot of rash tackles in the first half from Espanyol players as the derby heated up. Barcelona had several half chances after the opening goal but couldn't take any of them.
Espanyol might have been in the game at half-time but any hopes of a recovery were dashed within 8 minutes of the restart. Messi found Suarez with a through ball and the Uruguayan poked home to make it 2-0 to Barca.
Just 10 minutes later the hosts put the game beyond any doubt. Suarez scored his second of the game with a close-range header from Rakitic’s corner. That was also the 1000th goal of this La Liga season and it was rightfully scored by the league’s top scorer
It went from defeat to humiliation for Barca’s neighbors as Rafinha scored just seconds after coming onto the pitch. The keeper spilled a loose ball in the box and the substitute had a simple tap in to make 4-0.
Neymar made it a perfect day for Barca and the MSN trio by scoring the 5th. Suarez squared the ball to the Brazilian who put it into an empty net. Barcelona will still have to win their final game of season after Madrid's victory but you wouldn't bet against Enrique's men on this form
Atletico Madrid out of the title race
Atletico Madrid suffered a shock defeat to relegated Levante as they went down 2-1. They took the lead in the 2nd minute through Fernando Torres but Levante scored two goals one in each half to end Diego's Simeone's dreams of a double.