The twenty-fifth La Liga week began with a catch-up game between Leganes and Real Madrid which the latter won 3-1 as visitors. On Friday, Deportivo were held at home 0-0 by Espanyol. On Saturday, Celta Vigo defeated visiting Eibar 2-0 while Real Madrid played poor hosts to Alaves, defeating them 4-0. Leganes drew with visitors Las Palmas, while Barcelona made the gap between perennial champion and recently promoted teams real putting six past visiting Girona for a 6-1 final score.
Barcelona’s win seemed more a case of piling on an already defeated opponent while Real Madrid’s win seemed a case of the hosts finally figuring out a surprisingly tough visitor, despite their 16th slot on the La Liga table. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez needed to pad their goal tallies as Cristiano Ronaldo was fast approaching them, while the Portuguese superstar played beneficent leader allowing his star-crossed teammate, Karim Benzema, to score off a penalty won by Gareth Bale.
On Sunday hosts Villarreal just got past Getafe 1-0, Athletic Bilbao won 2-1 against visiting Malaga, Valencia won 2-1 at home over Real Sociedad, and Sevilla lost 2-5 to visiting Atletico Madrid in a game that had quite a bit of cynical play and not a few calls go unfairly Atletico’s way. The first and second teams on the table will play on the other side of the Champions League break and with but seven points separating them an Atleti win make some think the league trophy is still contestable. On Monday, hosts Levante play Real Betis to close out the current round.
With that one match still pending the top of the table will remain unchanged with Barcelona on top with 65 points, followed by Atletico Madrid with 58, Real Madrid with 51, and Valencia claiming the last Champions League slot in fourth place with 49 points, eight clear of Villarreal, in fifth at 41 points. Despite their severe loss to table leaders Barca, newly promoted Girona maintained a respectable ninth spot.
The top five La Liga scorers by round’s end were Barcelona’s Messi with 22 goals, followed by teammate Suarez with 20, Celta Vigo’s Iago Aspas with 16, Real Madrid’s Ronaldo with 14, and Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez with 13.
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