Lionel Messi Takes Barcelona Closer To The La Liga Title

There’s just no stopping him. Lionel Messi’s 600th career goal was the game winner in an absolutely fantastic advert for Spanish football.

Barcelona knew that if they lost this game, Atletico Madrid would be just two points behind them in with the momentum in their favour. A draw would see the five-point status quo remain the same, whilst a win would send Barca eight clear.

It really was the archetypal game of two halves, the hosts bossing the first and Atleti coming much more into it in the second.

That said, Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal was barely troubled, even when the Rojiblancos were playing with four attackers on the pitch.

Give Diego Simeone his due, he did try absolutely everything to beat this Barcelona side, but they just came up short again. El Cholo still hasn’t beaten them in the league whilst this was Ernesto Valverde’s first victory over his opposite number.

It also continued Barcelona’s epic unbeaten run.

Just the one goal settled it, and what a goal it was too. Against Girona he sent a direct free-kick under the wall. In midweek, he drilled one into the top corner against Las Palmas.

Against Atleti, Messi managed to flight one up and over the wall and past the outstretched hand of Jan Oblak.

It deserved to win the game… and the title.

Real win but aren’t convincing - again

Getafe certainly didn’t put up the same fight at the Santiago Bernabeu as they had at the Camp Nou, but Real Madrid still found them hard to break down.

Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo (with his 300th La Liga goal) took the game away from their visitors in the first half, with both goals the result of poor defending.

Until then, the visitors had given as good as they received without really troubling Keylor Navas. And yet, there was little service for BBC from the wings, and too much possession was ceded in the middle of the park.

With the greatest of respect, Getafe are no PSG, and the French side will have seen enough to know that if they can grab an early goal on Tuesday, there’s every possibility that they will advance in the Champions League at the expense of the holders.

Loic Remy’s sending off completely killed the game as a contest, but in fairness, the away side did their level best to remain competitive and won a fortuitous penalty for their endeavours.

Portillo’s goal from the spot halved the deficit, and meant that Real have now only kept one clean sheet in their last 11 games.

There’ll be a degree of annoyance too that they weren’t able to go on and score a hatful as they’ve done on a few occasions this season, a towering Ronaldo header their only other score.

The fairytale continues for little Girona who can now add Villarreal to their list of conquests in the debut LaLiga campaign.

Once again, Pablo Machin's side worked exceptionally hard throughout, and fully deserved their 2-0 victory.

The win draws the Catalans to within a point of their hosts, and on the cusp of the European places, depending what happens elsewhere.

Though Villarreal had two-thirds of the possession, they were wasteful in front of goal, Girona scoring from their only two shots on target.

Cristhian Stuani opened the scoring just after the half hour, but the game wouldn't be made safe until late in the game.

A signing from Barcelona B, Anthony 'Choco' Lozano let fly on 80 minutes and his shot fizzed in.

All that remained was for the visitors to see out the final 10 minutes which they did, comfortably.

Third home win in a row for Sociedad

The damage in the Basque derby was done in the opening 11 minutes, Alaves not able to cope with Real Sociedad’s fast start.

Eusebio Sacristan’s side have been woeful at times this season, but they were immediately on the front foot against a resurgent Alaves.

Hector Moreno opened the scoring in the sixth minute and Asier Illarramendi made it two five minutes later.

Alaves couldn’t get near their opponents to even make a game of it, La Real easily controlling possession for two-thirds of the game.

With their only shot on target, Alfonso Pedraza handed Alaves a lifeline just before half-time, and if Ruben Sobrino’s shot on the whistle had gone in instead of hitting the bar, we could’ve had a totally different.

As it turned out, the second 45 was a real damp squib with neither side creating any chances of note. Three subs from Alaves didn’t alter a thing and a lack of any fight is the one aspect that will surely have most hurt Abelardo.

Athletic’s poor run continued at Sevilla

Ahead of a Europa League date with Marseille, Kuko Ziganda was looking for a high-intensity performance from his Athletic Club side… but he got totally the opposite.

The game was decided within eight first-half minutes, during which time Sevilla had free reign of the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Luis Muriel’s header of the bar on 24 was unfortunate, but he soon grabbed the opener thanks to an assist from Franco Vazquez.

Vazquez himself then completed the scoring on 32 with a header from Steven N’Zonzi’s delightful cross.

Athletic edged the possession but never really had an end product, their meagre three shots on goal comparing to nine from the Andalusians.

With Masreille in clearly in mind, Ziganda made a triple substitution at half-time, effectively throwing in the towel at that point.

He can but hope that his charges do the business in Europe again, but up against a team that have only lost once at home all season, that’s unlikely.

Only time will tell if his decisions against Sevilla were the right ones or not.