Atletico aim for La Liga summit after taking advantage of Barca slip
Come Christmas, La Liga has every chance of being led not by Barcelona, the champions, nor Real Madrid, the most decorated of Spain's clubs, but by the institution who most stubbornly disrupt the notion that the domestic league with the most cachet in terms of the quality of its soccer is about only two clubs. Atletico Madrid on Sunday made themselves joint leaders in Spain's elite division, and are five points ahead of third-placed Real Madrid, who lost 1-0 at Villarreal.
They now have a glorious opportunity to leapfrog Barcelona.
This at the end of a weekend to recommend the strength-in-depth of La Liga, and its capacity to provide a great spectacle. Heroics were initially supplied by the indefatigable Deportivo La Coruna, who visited Barcelona's Camp Nou on Saturday, might easily have been deflated by the excellence of the Lionel Messi and Ivan Rakitic goals that put them 2-0 down but instead responded with a never-say-die verve and two emphatic answers to Barca's earlier swagger in the last 15 minutes of the fixture to earn a 2-2 draw.
More gumption was brought to Atletico's Vicente Calderon by an Athletic Bilbao intent on showing, ahead of a Monday in which seven Spanish clubs will be represented in the respective draws for the last 16 of the European Champions League, and the last 32 of the Europa League, that there is talent and ferocity throughout La Liga. Athletic are mere mid-table right now, but, to beat them, Atletico had to be at their best to win 2-1, and were grateful to a special, match-winning performance from Antoine Griezmann, their French flyer, for making the difference.
The odd men out on a thrilling weekend? Real Madrid, outfought and outplayed for the first 45 minutes of their trip to plucky, unbulliable Villarreal. Real lost 1-0 thanks to a goal from Roberto Soldado, the peripatetic striker who was once a Madrid player. Madrid had seen the gap at the top close with Barcelona's slip-up, and in spite of a second half of greater purpose and urgency, could not seize the moment, suffering a third loss of their league season. Their coach, Rafa Benitez, can anticipate a torturous week. The assessment made of the Madrid's first half by Pepe, the defender, will resonate, too: "We need to show more team spirit than we did."
The gap between Benitez's underachievers and the co-leaders is now five points. Atletico can go three points clear of Barcelona next Sunday if they win away at Malaga, who are 16th. We always aspire to be the best," said Diego Simeone, the head coach who led Atletico to the Spanish title in 2014, and whose continuing in the job, despite many offers of employment elsewhere, is motivated by his desire to show that Liga title was not a freak one-off.
Barcelona cannot defend their lead next weekend. Their players were on board an Airbus 380, bound for Japan, where they anticipate spending the next eight days during the Club World Cup, where they have a semi-final on Thursday and a possible - or, rather, a likely - final next Sunday, when news reached them of Atletico's catching them up on 35 points and Real Madrid's failure to keep up.
The Club World Cup is a trip that carries prestige, valuable income, but also compromise. It means a greater risk of fatigue, a cumulative condition for athletes performing at an elite level for nine or ten months without much break. And the break for all the players employed in La Liga over Christmas and New Year is briefer than usual. The winter recess in Spain traditionally runs until early January. It ends this year with the 17th matchday of the calendar before the end of December. The season has been concertinaed. Coaches and their fitness technicians calibrate carefully how their players will work their peaks and troughs of stamina into the calendar and Barcelona have had, since July, concerns about a schedule that obliged them, as Spanish and European champions, to play extra games in the domestic and European Super Cups in August and then to travel to the Far East for the Club World Cup in December.
Luis Enrique, Barcelona's head coach, has been keeping count of the details. "There are players who have completed more minutes at this stage of the season they had at the same point last year," he noted. Barca have now drawn their last three games, and in all three of them after having been in the lead. The midweek 1-1 at Bayer Leverkusen is barely relevant: Barcelona rested senior players and had their pole position in their Champions League group already confirmed. But the dropped four points in La Liga, thanks to goals conceded after the 80th minute at Valencia and on Saturda at home to Deportivo, make him anxious. Barcelona had won 10 or their 11 matches across competitions until they went to Valencia a week ago.
"I made errors," said Luis Enrique, referring to his substitutions in the second half against Deportivo, where the winding-down of Barcelona's intensity, the looking forward to the next challenge, the safeguarding of stamina and the lack of look-out for any present danger has cost them points. Atletico, rugged and alert, have taken advantage of that. They have momentum. Real Madrid do not.
