This Saturday, champions Barcelona reinforced their isolated lead in the Spanish League and left pursuer Real Madrid seven points behind, after winning with a comeback against Atlético de Madrid (2-1), on the 30th round.
A goal with the left shoulder of Polish substitute Robert Lewandowski, in the 87th minute, resulted in the 25th victory, and sixth consecutive, for the Catalans in the championship, at a time when the Madrilenians were playing in numerical inferiority, due to the expulsion of Argentine Nicolás González, already at 45+3.
Portuguese João Cancelo was a totalist for Barcelona and stood out in the decisive play of the classic, taking out Argentine Thiago Almada twice to shoot against fellow Albiceste player Juan Musso, before the ball bounced off Lewandowski and beat the goalkeeper.
Barcelona completed a turnaround started on the way to half-time by Englishman Marcus Rashford (42 minutes), in response to the opening goal from Argentine Giuliano Simeone (39), son of ‘colchonero’ coach, Diego Simeone, in the first of three meetings between the two clubs in 10 days, as they will face each other in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
With eight rounds to go, and after the last stop of the club competitions for the commitments of the national teams, Barcelona leads with 76 points, against 69 of the rival Real Madrid, second placed, having capitalized on the defeat suffered by the ‘merengues’ already in added time at Mallorca’s ground (2-1), of the Portuguese Samu Costa and leaving the relegation zone.
In the 94 previous editions of the Spanish top flight, no team with at least seven points behind at the top and, at most, eight games remaining managed to become champions.
Villarreal, owned by Portuguese Renato Veiga, completes the podium, with 58 points, before visiting Girona, on Monday, while Atlético de Madrid, which was coming off an away defeat to city rivals Real Madrid (3-2), is in fourth place, last to enter the Champions League, and has 57 points.
Of the top four, only Barcelona has already secured a direct place in the league phase of the 2026/27 edition of the main European club competition, a scenario that also includes the Germans from Bayern Munich and the Dutch from PSV Eindhoven in the remaining European championships.
