Barca basks in glory as Real Madrid struggles

HAVING knocked Real Madrid out of the Copa del Rey last week, Barcelona went on to possibly eliminate their greatest rivals from La Liga title race, with a 1-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

The pressure was on Madrid, not only to make up for their defeat in the Copa, but also to reduce the nine-point gap between them and La Liga’s leaders Barca.

But instead, a great chip from Croatian midfielder, Ivan Rakitic, earned a victory for dominant Barcelona, taking them 12 points ahead of Los Blancos.

However, Atletico Madrid, in second place, are biting at the heels of Ernesto Valverde’s team, following a convincing 2-0 win over Real Sociedad

Ending the week seven points off the league leaders was Diego Simeone‘s side’s objective at Anoeta, and they did exactly what was required of them.

Spain striker Morata opened his Atletico account in the previous weekend’s victory over Villarreal and boosted his tally to three goals in two games with a pair of headers in the space of three first-half minutes on Sunday.

Sitting in seventh place after a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao are Valencia, thanks to goals from Rodrigo and Kevin Gameiro.

Meanwhile, in the second division, Almeria celebrated a 2-1 defeat over Zaragoza, and are now in eighth place.  Alvaro Gimenez put Almeria ahead before Alvaro Vazques equalised. Esteban Saveljich went on to score the winning goal six minutes later.

On Saturday, RCD Mallorca face Oviedo, Almeria take on Sporting Gijon, Elche play Cadiz while Malaga are up against division leaders Osasuna.