Barcelona and Real Madrid fight for the lead, Bayern Munich struggling and Juventus just keep winning.
La Liga
Holy title race, Batman. Following Barcelona’s giant win over Real Madrid on the weekend, both clubs laid waste to their respective opponents on Wednesday. Barca banged in seven goals against a hapless Osasuna. Lionel Messi notched a brace. Real Madrid could only muster six goals on the road against Deportivo as Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale were rested.
As we stated last week, Barcelona had to at the very least secure a draw in Sunday’s El Clasico to keep their title hopes alive. Their 3-2 win brought the teams level — and they remained level after Wednesday — with Barca claiming top spot thanks to goal difference. They’ve scored 101 flipping La Liga goals, 11 more than Real. But Real still possess that increasingly valuable game in hand.
Both are in action this Saturday as the Blaugrana travel to ninth-place Espanyol while Los Merengues host 12th-place Valencia. The race for third place also looks like it will go down to the wire as Atletico Madrid and Sevilla are each on 68 points. Atleti travel to 13th-place Las Palmas on Saturday while Sevilla visit 14th-place on Monday.
Bundesliga
RB Leipzig failed to capitalize on Bayern Munich’s second straight draw as they drew away to Schalke last Sunday. Leaders Bayern, who have an eight-point cushion atop the league table, drew with 13th-place Mainz on Sunday. Bayern also fell to Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup semis on Wednesday. Their players appear to be human after all.
Dortmund moved into third place thanks to their 3-2 victory over Monchengladbach on Saturday and Hoffenheim’s draw away to Cologne. Christian Pulisic went the full 90 in the important victory. BVB will host Cologne on Saturday while Hoffenheim welcome ninth-place Frankfurt.
Second-place Leipzig will look to cut into Bayern’s lead as they host 17th-place Inglostadt on Saturday. The leaders also play on Saturday as they travel to 14th-place Wolfsburg, who have lost three of their last four league matches.
Serie A
Water is wet. The sky is blue. Marouane Fellaini is bad at soccer. Juventus won another Serie A game.
Juve maintained their eight-point lead over Roma as both clubs won last weekend (both scored four goals). While it seems unlikely that Roma will bridge the gap between themselves and the leaders, their main concern will be preventing Napoli, who drew with Sassuolo on Sunday, from overtaking them for second place.
Juventus will be under the lights in the only Friday night Serie A match as they travel to an Atalanta side currently challenging Lazio for fourth place. The Rome derby will take place on Sunday while Napoli travel to struggling Inter Milan, who are winless in their last five — three of those being losses — and are currently languishing in seventh, two points behind crosstown rivals AC Milan.
Bonus Goal(s)
I’m pretty sure if I didn’t put Messi’s two goals against Real Madrid in this space I would never be allowed to blog about soccer again. The first one was probably better …
… but the winner was sweeter.
https://twitter.com/Uday_PSPKfan/status/856258288433987584
With Ray Hudson on the mic, there isn’t much I can add besides stating that Messi is the best soccer player of all time and Barcelona are definitely back in the La Liga title race.
Until next week.