La Liga Winners and Losers from Week 21: Wins for the Top 3 Again
Gameweek 21 in Spain's top flight is almost completely over, save for one Monday night fixture. The rest of the weekend action saw some fantastic matches, plenty of goals and some shifting positions in the league table.
We've taken a look around the entire country to bring you our usual round-up of winners and losers from La Liga, of course featuring all the biggest teams...but plenty of the rest, too, as we seek who is struggling to achieve their objectives for the campaign, and who had a weekend to remember.
Winners: Clinical Edge Giving Title Chasers the Advantage
1 of 6
Barcelona had to be right on their game in attack to beat Villarreal, eventually overcoming their opponents 3-2 in a fantastic game of end-to-end attack.
The Catalan side were not the only title challenger to display efficiency and effectiveness in front of goal though, with both Madrid sides managing to plunder plenty of strikes. Atletico took control early on with three goals inside 25 minutes at Eibar, winning their game 3-1.
And that came after Real Madrid had made light work of Real Sociedad, pitching up a 4-1 win without Cristiano Ronaldo.
Losers: Villarreal's Bad Luck on Referee Call
2 of 6
Villarreal might have lost the game, but they deserve tremendous credit for taking the game to Barcelona, showing all their attacking prowess—and the game could have tipped their way at a vital moment.
Shortly after Barça equalised for 2-2, a Villarreal attack ended with a shot on goal, which was quite clearly blocked by Jordi Alba's arm inside the box. It should have been a penalty, the away side protested furiously...but as the referee waved play on, Barcelona countered and finished the move with a goal at the other end instead.
On such small margins are games decided, and this time the luck fell to Barcelona—who will themselves point to Neymar being taken out by goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo, without a penalty being awarded there, either.
Winners: Ending Horrible, Barren Runs of Form
3 of 6
Three of the worst runs around came to an end over the weekend, as Celta Vigo, Athletic Bilbao and Granada all managed to finally take three points in La Liga.
Nolito gave Celta a 1-0 win over Cordoba, their first league win since November 1st, a wretched run of 10 games which had seen them score only twice in that time. Athletic Bilbao, meanwhile, needed a brace from Aritz Aduriz to see off Levante 2-0, ending a seven-match winless run of their own.
The worst of all had been Granada, without a league win since September 20th, 16 games in total, before they finally won 1-0 at the weekend, Jhon Cordoba's goal beating Elche.
Losers: The Wheels Coming off for Eibar?
4 of 6
We briefly touched on Eibar being defeated by Atletico Madrid earlier; in a match played in awful conditions and on a dreadful pitch, Eibar capitulated early on and were easily dispatched 3-1 by Atleti. In truth it could have been far worse had the away side not taken their foot off the pedal.
After a first half of the season which defied everybody's expectations, Eibar—whose ground holds just over 5,000 spectators—have now drawn one and lost two of their last three games, and have only won twice in their last eight.
There's still a long way to go, and they are still performing fantastically to be in eighth place, but a tight bottom half means it's just nine points between themselves and the relegation zone. They must continue to pick up points here and there to avoid being sucked into a battle for the drop.
Games next against Deportivo and Elche will be critical.
Winners: Escaping Relegation Struggles
5 of 6
Giving us a nice smooth transition, Deportivo La Coruna are one of our focus sides here, for picking up the points recently to pull themselves away from the bottom of the table, having struggled earlier on in the season.
A 2-1 win away to Rayo Vallecano, courtesy of a Celso Borges brace on his debut, moved Depor up to 14th after just one defeat in their last five now.
While Granada's overdue win also lifted them off the bottom, they remain in the drop zone—but Almeria's 1-0 win over Getafe pushes them out of the bottom three and into 16th, following on from three straight losses.
Three points separate 14th to 18th.
Winners: Points from the Big Midweek Games
6 of 6
There are two games to watch out for in the coming days: Malaga play Valencia on Monday night, and Sevilla play Real Madrid in the rearranged match from just prior to the winter break.
With lots of points at stake for the clubs in and around the top four, the two big races—title race and Champions League race—will become far clearer shortly, once all 20 sides are up to date and having played 21 fixtures.
A Sevilla win over Real would push them to the fringes of the title race, but very much in the driving seat for fourth. A Real win, though, gives them a four-point buffer at the top of the table—and could leave Valencia in fourth instead of Sevilla, if Los Che beat Malaga.
Malaga themselves are seventh and surely out of the top-four race now after four without a win...but a home victory over Valencia would surely reignite their hopes of challenging over the latter stages of the season. A big few days are ahead for the top La Liga sides.
