There’s still a title race in La Liga, if only just. Real Madrid lost to Valencia, but Barcelona could not take full advantage and only managed a draw at home to Real Betis. Let’s see what else happened in España this weekend.
La Liga Winners
Pablo Barrios
After Barça and Real both dropped points, Atlético needed a win in the worst way. It came from maybe the least likely source, a Real Madrid academy graduate who never scored a goal in La Liga until he picked up the ball at the halfway line, dribbled all the way to the D, and finished into the bottom corner. The goal gave Atlético the three points at Sevilla. Maybe it’s too late to make a difference in the title race, but maybe Atlético rediscovered their winning mentality just now.
Adrián
He’s the Adrián who used to play in goal for West Ham, not the Adrián who used to play in goal for Liverpool. He now plays between the sticks for Real Betis, and he and the defenders in front of him did much to limit Barcelona’s powerful offense to one early goal in a 1-1 draw at the Nou Camp. Had Barcelona snagged a winner, they would have had a six-point lead with only eight matches left, and that would have been tough for Real Madrid to overcome. We can thank him that there’s still some drama left at the top of La Liga.
Espanyol
What got into these guys, exactly? The team that had one win on the road this season in La Liga thoroughly pummeled Rayo Vallecano at the Estadio de Vallecas, with four different players scoring goals. They’re not out of the relegation scrap yet, but with an easy schedule the rest of the way, los periquitos can breathe a lot easier now.
Mouctar Diakhaby
The Valencia defender hasn’t played much since suffering a dislocated knee (ay!) against Real Madrid a year ago, but he returned to the lineup as his team’s captain against Real this past weekend, and the Guinean scored his team’s opening goal off a corner kick. He also scored an own goal that got called back because Kylian Mbappé was offside. With the help of some great saves by Giorgi Mamardashvili and a stoppage-time winner by Hugo Duro when Real were creating all the scoring chances, he led Valencia to a victory that might have secured their safety.
Lucien Agoumé
The young Frenchman was on the losing side against Atlético, but he scored his first-ever goal in any professional competition with a rocket to the top corner in the 8th minute. The midfielder got loaned out endlessly from Inter Milan before signing permanently for Sevilla, and finally getting off the goose egg has to feel good for him.
Ramón Terrats
Getafe may be La Liga’s most defensively oriented team, but against a defense as whisper-soft as accursed, hapless Real Valladolid’s, it would be tactical malpractice not to open things up. That’s what los azulones did, and they came away with an easy 4-0 win, with Terrats blasting in two of the goals.
La Liga Losers
Villarreal
That scoreless draw hurts Villarreal more than it does Athletic Bilbao, because the Yellow Submarine blew a great chance to gain ground on their rivals for fourth place. Villarreal still have a game in hand, but Papa Gueye’s late red card means they’ll be without him for a game. They need the Basque team to slip up.
Girona
Wayward finishing handed a 1-0 win to visiting Alavés. We’re talking 16 shots for the home team and only one shot on target. For the home fans, there’s nothing more frustrating than shooting blanks like that.
Jagoba Arrasate
When striker Vedat Muriqi went off injured in the first half against Celta de Vigo, Mallorca’s coach replaced him with Cyle Larin. Nothing wrong with that, but Muriqi is more of a big, physical player, while Larin is more of a speed threat, and Mallorca’s players didn’t seem to realize that. The coach should have devised a contingency plan to play to the Canadian forward’s strengths. Instead, Mallorca’s offense went away along with their 1-0 first-half lead, as visiting Celta came away with a 2-1 win.
Las Palmas
They were beaten completely at home by Real Sociedad, and with Leganés snatching a late draw in their match against Osasuna, safety is pulling further away from los amarillos. They still have matches to come against Atlético, Athletic Bilbao, and Rayo Vallecano, so things are looking grim right now.
The del Nido family
The family that owns FC Sevilla is now involved in an unseemly internal dispute that manifested itself on the pitch during the team’s loss to Atlético, as fans called on team president José María “Junior” del Nido Carrasco to resign by throwing torn-up cards onto the pitch. They want Junior’s dad, José María del Nido Benavente, to win a power struggle against his son and resume his place calling the shots at Sevilla. The older del Nido is a creep, but he did preside over that late-00’s Sevilla team that had so much success with Jesús Navas, Daniel Alves, Frédéric Kanouté, and Luís Fabiano, so you can understand the fans’ feelings. The loss in the Seville derby last week isn’t helping, either. Sevilla may be comfortably in mid-table, but there's just a lot of bad mojo flying around this team.