La Liga Winners and Losers from Week 24: Shock Barcelona Defeat, Ronaldo Is Back
Gameweek 24 was an eye-opener in La Liga, as Barcelona's headline-making shock defeat at home to Malaga gave a tremendous boost to the two Madrid sides as the trio all chase the title in Spain.
We've rounded up that game and all of the others from the most recent round of action to bring you the biggest winners and losers of the past few days, telling you what the results mean at each stage of the league table and for the rest of the season.
With only 14 matches left to play in the 2014-15 season, each win is now crucial and each defeat a huge missed opportunity.
Losers: Barcelona
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It's almost difficult to comprehend this defeat. Barcelona were in the form of their season heading into a home match; they had won 11 games in a row, conceding only eight goals, and they were going up against a Malaga side with one win in nine.
There should have been no competition, no surprises, no outcome other than a home three points, but a slow start, a sloppy error and a lack of real creativity in the final third all conspired to throw the Catalan side off course and give Malaga an important three points.
Dani Alves' woeful backpass let Juanmi in to score in the 1-0 win for Malaga, while the home team finished with Neymar, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Pedro all on the pitch in attack and passing up chances. The best ones came late on, with Pedro firing wide and Suarez seeing a shot saved—but for 80 minutes, it was too predictable, too slow and painfully evident that it just wasn't going to be Barcelona's day.
Winners: All-Firing Front Lines in Madrid
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While that happened early on Saturday, Atletico and Real Madrid were both waiting a little longer for their games—and both took advantage by taking three points of their own.
Atleti started fast, tore open Almeria and had the points wrapped up in half an hour, winning 3-0, while Real had to huff and puff considerably longer before quality and persistence eventually told, beating Elche 2-0 away from home.
The nods of appreciation have to go to the front lines of both teams, with Antoine Griezmann netting a brace and Mario Mandzukic scoring a penalty for Atleti—those two combined now have 26 goals this term in La Liga. It's six in six for the French forward, and the Croatian has four in four.
Over at Real, Karim Benzema's resurgence saw him play a pivotal role once more, scoring the opener with a tap-in, which owed more to perseverance and anticipation than skill, with Cristiano Ronaldo—now with two in two—finishing things off. Benzema, having gone through a barren spell in La Liga, now has five goals in his last six league games.
Winners: Los Che, Chasing Europe
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While the title race occupies the attention of most people, the race for fourth place has been dramatic and exciting all year in Spain, with Valencia now starting to look the clear favourites to pull away.
They are actually the most "in-form" side in the top flight after Barcelona's defeat, having won a third successive league game at the weekend—a late, 2-1 win at Cordoba. Andre Gomes and Pablo Piatti scored the goals to claim a priceless three points, giving Los Che a five-point buffer to their nearest challengers for fourth and the final Champions League spot.
With Valencia's fixture schedule mirroring that of Sevilla's but simply playing each side a week later, they know exactly what they need to do to keep ahead of the Andalusian side.
Losers: Sevilla's Sudden and Badly Timed Drop in Form
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Speaking of Sevilla, that five-point gap has come about after they were initially looking good to mount a season-long challenge for fourth—until a horrid recent run of league results.
Sevilla's late, 4-3 defeat at Real Sociedad on Sunday was a third loss in four games, with the only victory in that run coming at home to bottom club Cordoba. With Atletico Madrid up next, it's not going to get any easier for Unai Emery and his team as they seek to close ground on Valencia.
A largely static system, not enough of a goal threat from all areas of the pitch and inconsistencies in defence of late have all combined to derail their Champions League charge.
Winners: Basque Improvement, Celta's Stroll
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While Sevilla bemoaned the late turnaround, Real Sociedad's stoppage-time winner was quite some time in coming; this was their first win in four and only their second in nine, with too many draws of late preventing any real movement up the table.
However, the victory fired them into the top half for the first time since the table took any meaningful shape this season, and they are now in 10th place and level on points with fellow Basque sides Eibar and Athletic Bilbao.
While Eibar suffered a fifth straight loss thanks to a terrible goalkeeping error against Villarreal, Athletic also got back to winning ways, as Aritz Aduriz scored an 86th-minute winner against Rayo Vallecano, with 1-0 also the score there.
Celta Vigo have been the biggest beneficiaries of this season's muddling middle of the table inconsistencies, with their run of three wins in four pushing them up to eighth. After a long, hopeless run that lacked goals and points, Celta are finally back on the right path, and the 2-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna finally saw Joaquin Larrivey hit the back of the net—the striker's first league goal since November 1.
Losers: Whoever Doesn't Take Three Points in the Relegation 'Playoff'
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Our final "losers" slot has to be reserved for the Monday-night fixture, a game of huge importance for the relegation battle as Levante, 19th, host Granada, 18th.
The two are locked on 19 points, four from safety behind Almeria and Elche. Quite frankly, it's a game neither can afford to lose or draw. If there is a victor, the winner will rejoin the group of sides hovering outside the drop zone and hoping to keep above the dotted line, while the other will be rooted in a two-at-the-bottom group along with Cordoba.
With games running out and opportunities to take points off teams around them slipping away each week, both sides have to be brave enough to try and attack the game at the right time. If they both draw, forget another point, they're both losers—they'll still be a win away from safety and will have let a massive chance go by.
