It’s not too often the La Liga headlines go to a club outside of Madrid or Barcelona so let me begin this weekend with Cadiz.
They’ve only won five league games so far this season and two of them have come in the last six contests.
Yet Sunday’s 1-0 home win over Getafe, coupled with defeat for Celta Vigo at Atletico Madrid by the same scoreline, has given them a glimmer of survival.
A penalty from Ruben Alcaraz 10 minutes before the break separated the sides and Atletico’s victory means Cadiz have closed the gap on Celta to five points with three games remaining.
The result also means fourth placed Los Rojiblancos require just one more point to seal a Champions League place for next season,
Celta rallied after the restart but a home victory was sealed late on when as Rodrigo De Paul crashed home a superb volley.
It marked an impressive milestone for Diego Simeone. The Argentinian coach has now amassed 976 points as the most picked up by any manager in La Liga history.
Atletico can be caught by Athletic Bilbao who deserved credit for overturning a 2-0 deficit in a 2-2 draw at home to Osasuna, yet the Basque club may have little incentive given they are already assured of a European place after last month’s Copa del Rey success.
That was when Spain’s fourth oldest club ended a 40-year trophy drought in a nerve-wracking Copa del Rey final in Seville to claim their first since 1984.
While Real Betis and Real Sociedad still harbour hopes of a trop six finish and European qualification, I now have to return to my two teams of the season.
Real Madrid were relentless in reaching the Champions League Final for the sixth time in 11 years in midweek.
Already crowned Spanish champions, they were equally relentless and professional to see off relegated Granada on Saturday night, despite resting a number of key men.
Goals from Fran Garcia – his first for the club – Arda Guler and a double from Brahim Diaz helped Carlo Ancelotti’s men extend their unbeaten league run to 29 matches, surpassing the previous club record in a single campaign of 28 matches set during the tenure of John Toshack in 1989/90.
Even when the SBOTOP La Liga betting odds are stacked against them, which is hardly ever, the Madridistas find a way to win!
Their week to remember continued on Sunday as they celebrated their 36th La Liga title with their supporters in the Spanish capital. After trips to the Community Headquarters and City Hall, Los Blancos settled in at La Cibeles, where captain Nacho Fernandez christened Cybele with a flag and scarf and Ancelotti danced with Eduardo Camavinga. Scenes!
Anyone who reads my articles regularly will know the levels of respect I hold for Ancelotti and, this season, Girona whose La Liga highlights continue apace.
A 2-2 draw at Alves may have not been the ideal result – they conceded an equaliser deep into stoppage time – yet in many ways that didn’t matter.
They had long since surpassed all their targets for this season.
First survival, achieved 16 weeks early; then Europe for the first time; then Champions League football.
Last weekend’s victory at home to Barcelona meant they became the first team to put eight past the Catalans in a season this century.
A major triumph against the odds for the club which, if I can remind you for the final time this season, has a ground which holds only 14,624, some of them on scaffolding stands. The side hails from a city of 97,586 people, overshadowed by Barcelona 99 kilometres down the road, and a club which sold a number of its best players last summer, including Oriol Romeu (to Barcelona), top scorer Taty Castellanos, their best winger Rodrigo Riquelme, and centre-back Santi Bueno.
Let me conclude with the game of the weekend.
Villarreal and Sevilla have both struggled to live up to previous glories this term but their meeting on Saturday proved to be deliciously exciting for the neutral.
At the Ceramica, the ‘Yellow Submarine’ twice came from behind to edge out last season’s Europa League winners.
Youssef En-Nesyri had the visitors ahead until the 84th minute, scoring either side of an Alexander Sorloth equaliser, before Yerson Mosquera made it 2-2. The winner came in the 97th minute courtesy of Sorloth, who is now only one goal behind Girona’s Artem Dovbyk in the Pichichi Trophy race – probably the most exciting race remaining as the La Liga season draws to a close.
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