Atletico Madrid are feeling the pressure at the top of La Liga. The leaders dropped two more points away to Getafe over the weekend, which has seen their advantage shrink to six points. And chances are it will go down to just four points with red-hot Barcelona likely to beat bottom-club Huesca.
The Rojiblancos’ form has been rocky over the last few weeks, which has allowed rivals Real Madrid and Barca to claw their way back to the title race. Real kept the pressure up on their city rivals by getting another win as star striker Karim Benzema came to their rescue with two late goals.
Meanwhile, Villarreal ended their long winless run to keep their hopes of grabbing a Europa League spot alive.
Read on below as SBOTOP goes through the key takeaways from the latest round of fixtures in Spain’s La Liga.
Atleti drop more points as pressure continues to build
Atletico Madrid suffered another setback to their title hopes as they were held to a goalless draw away at Getafe. Despite the hosts going down to 10 men with 20 minutes left, Atleti still could not find a way through.
Atleti’s La Liga 2021 results since February have been quite disappointing. They’ve won just three of eight league matches, with four draws.
Granted, one of those was a draw to rivals Real in the derby, but they were up with just two minutes left and once again gave up a late goal to drop two crucial points.
Meanwhile, they continue to rely heavily on Luis Suarez to supply their goals. To the 34-year-old’s credit, he is playing as well as one could expect for someone of his age. He has 18 goals in 24 league appearances this season and had scored in each of his last two games prior to the Getafe draw.
Marcos Llorente has also exceeded all expectations with nine goals and eight assists. But young Joao Felix, on the other hand, has not been able to continue the impressive form he showed at the start of the season. He is contributing very little of late, which adds even more pressure to score on Suarez’s shoulders.
Atleti will face Chelsea in the Champions League in midweek and need to overturn a 1-0 deficit. But with the way their league form has dipped, perhaps crashing out of Europe might be a blessing in disguise for Diego Simeone’s side as they can put their full focus on the La Liga title race.
Benzema proves once again he’s the Real MVP
Not to be outdone by 34-year-old Suarez, 33-year-old Karim Benzema is also having an unbelievable season for Real. After popping up with a late equaliser against Atleti in the derby, Benzema rescued Real once again with a late brace to complete a comeback win over relegation-strugglers Elche.
Benzema has now scored five goals in his last four games and three in two since returning from injury. He has 15 goals in 23 league games overall and is by far Real’s most valuable player this season.
Real’s other forwards — Eden Hazard, Marco Asensio, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Mariano — have been so disappointing, which is why they continue to rely so heavily on the 33-year-old Frenchman.
The fact that Real are still even in the title race given their lack of other capable attackers is a testament to Benzema’s sheer brilliance. Not only does he put the ball in the back of the net, but he is also integral in creating chances for his team-mates.
Despite Atleti’s recent stumbles, it will still be a tough task for Real to claw back a six-point deficit with 11 games to go. But as long as Benzema stays fit, Los Blancos’ La Liga 2021 odds of retaining their title will remain alive.
Three-way battle for Europa League getting tighter
Villarreal finally snapped their disastrous run of eight-straight La Liga games without a win as they beat Eibar 3-1 away.
Someone other than Gerard Moreno finally scored for the Yellow Submarine as Moi Gomez, Carlos Bacca, and Alfonso Pedraza got the goals. Although, Moreno still played a big part in the win as he assisted on two of those goals. Prior to that match, Moreno had scored Villarreal’s last five goals over five matches.
That win proved even bigger as the two clubs directly ahead of Villarreal — Real Sociedad in fifth and Real Betis in sixth — both lost. Villarreal are now five points back of La Real and two points from Betis in the race for the final Europa League spot.
Of course, Villarreal are still alive in this year’s competition, which could complicate the rest of their league campaign. But with the in-form Moreno leading the line, the Yellow Submarine are still capable of pushing Sociedad and Betis all the way.
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