Going into La Liga play this weekend an announcement by Real Madrid Coach Zinédine Zidane was making headlines.
Zidane said that his team would not provide Barcelona with a guard-of-honor if the Catalan team had secured the league title by the time Real played at the Camp Nou on May 6.
Guard-of-honor or not, Real Madrid did arch-rivals Barcelona a favor on Sunday by drawing 1-1 with Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby before a crowd of 78,769 at the Bernabeu. Going into the derby Atleti was second in La Liga and Real Madrid third.
Barcelona now enjoys an 11 point lead (79 points to 68) on Atletico Madrid with only seven games remaining to play.
With Barcelona holding an additional edge on Atletico by winning the head-to-head games this season the Catalan team needs just three wins and a draw to win La Liga for the 25th time and the 9th time in the last 14 seasons. (Real Madrid has the most La Liga titles with 33.)
The Madrid derby was dominated by Real in all of the most relevant statistical categories – shots attempted and on target, possession %, completed passes and corner kicks. But not for the first in recent seasons Atleti thwarted the Real Madrid effort.
Atletico is now unbeaten against Real Madrid in La Liga play over the last five seasons with three wins and two draws.
With an eye to the Champions League, Real Coach Zinédine Zidane rested the likes of Casemiro, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema and Isco from the starting eleven but did start Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. It was the combination play of Bale and Ronaldo that gave Real Madrid the lead just after halftime.
Bale crossed from the left, the Madrid defense did a poor job of defending the effort and Cristiano Ronaldo who has been in red-hot scoring form since the turn of the year scored.
The goal extended Ronaldo’s scoring streak to 10 games in all competitions, his second longest streak for Real Madrid and brought his goal tally to 24 goals in his last 13 games.
The goal also hit a couple of other milestones:
- For the 8th consecutive season, he has scored at least 40 goals in all competitions
- It was the 33-years-old Ronaldo’s 500th goal in league competition
- It was his 65th goal for club and country and he scored the last 50 goals in just 48 games
Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored 23 goals in La Liga and he is 9th in the race for the Golden Boot – awarded to Europe’s top scorer in league play – six goals behind joint leaders Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Mo Salah (Liverpool).
The Atletico equalizer came from Antoine Griezmann, a player who seems to enjoy playing at the Bernabeu.
Griezmann, a possible transfer target for Barcelona this summer, scored for the third straight time in a Bernabeu La Liga derby. It was his 18th goal in La Liga this season.
As well as being close-to-certain winners of La Liga, Barcelona still has the chance to go through the entire league schedule undefeated.
On Saturday, Leganes was beaten 3-1 in front of a crowd of 72,126 at the Camp Nou at it is now a year since Barcelona last lost a match in La Liga.
Unbeaten in the remaining seven games in 2016/17 and now 31 this season equals the record set by Real Sociedad between 1979 and 1980.
Barcelona has an opportunity to set a new record next week against Valencia in an away match. The other La Liga games remaining for Barcelona are Celta Vigo (A), Deportivo La Coruna (A), Real Madrid (H), Villarreal (H), Levante (A) and Real Sociedad (H).
No team has ever gone unbeaten through a 38-game La Liga season. Athletic Bilbao (1929-30) and Real Madrid (1931-32) both were undefeated but the season consisted of just 18 games.
While Lionel Messi was on the bench at the start of the game against Sevilla last week, he started the match against Leganes and scored all three goals to go with his late equalizer even days before.
Messi’s first goal was from a free kick and it was the eighth time he has scored direct this season. It was also the sixth free kick he has scored on in La Liga play and that equals Ronaldinho’s record set in 2006/07.
Later on Sunday, Real Madrid slipped to 4th in La Liga after Valencia defeated Espanyol 1-0.
Forbes.
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