La Liga Winners and Losers from Week 27: Lionel Messi Back as Top Scorer
Gameweek 27 in La Liga saw another glut of goals, interesting matches, plenty of excitement and headline-making scorelines. Barcelona ultimately remained top of the table, and Lionel Messi surged past the 30-goal mark in the league this season.
We've taken a look at all the results over the last couple of days, assessing which teams and groups of teams within the division saw the biggest advantages or disadvantages go their way. It's always more than the simple scoreline, instead looking at how games affect the league table and teams achieving their seasonal aims.
Here are all our winners and losers from the weekend in Spain.
Winners: Barcelona, Resting and Rotating for 16 Wins from 17 Games
1 of 6
Barcelona went top of La Liga the previous gameweek, and with that comes a different kind of pressure—that of leading and staying ahead rather than playing the part of the chaser.
The Catalan club showed few nerves though as they travelled to Eibar and took a comfortable 2-0 victory, with boss Luis Enrique naming a highly changed midfield and defence, as he rested several big names ahead of a key week for Barcelona. The win, not spectacular but certainly merited and without too much trouble or effort, sent Barca four points clear at the top on Saturday night.
Rested players, more minutes for fringe individuals and a brace for Lionel Messi—who overtook Cristiano Ronaldo in the scoring chart as a result—made it a perfect all-round game for Barcelona in their preperation for Manchester City and Real Madrid.
Losers: Eibar and Cordoba, Losing Week After Week
2 of 6
Of course, three points for Barcelona meant zero for Eibar—for the eighth time in a row in La Liga. The dramatic fall from the top half to the verge of the relegation battle leaves the tiny Basque side in real danger and with a must-win game next time out, away to Granada. The Andalusians are 19th, have also lost three of the last four and are five points behind Eibar.
Cordoba are following a similar path. Their 2-0 loss to Malaga on Sunday made it eight losses in a row for them too. Worse for Cordoba, of course, is that they don't have a fine first half of the season to fall back on right now. They sit rock bottom, seven points from safety and with the gap only getting bigger.
Quite aside from losing and conceding goals, both Eibar and Cordoba are struggling to score, with just two and four respectively in those eight losses.
Winners: Athletic Bilbao's Rejuvenation
3 of 6
Sticking with the Basque theme, Athletic Bilbao are a team very much on the up, having struggled to get themselves together earlier in the season.
A fit and firing Aritz Aduriz just keeps getting better and more important for Athletic, with a penalty this weekend being his 11th goal of the campaign and setting his side on the way to a 2-1 away win over Celta Vigo.
Athletic go up to eighth place with their fourth win in a row—and they have only lost once in La Liga since mid-January, against league leaders Barcelona.
Ernesto Valverde has turned things around, and a top-half finish looks very much on the cards for his team.
Losers: Atletico Madrid, Pegged Back to 4th...for Now
4 of 6
Atletico Madrid's recent run of just one win from the last five games in La Liga has ended any hopes they might have had of retaining the title. However, their fight for a top-three place remains relevant—as third means an automatic Champions League group spot, while fourth means a qualifier against a potentially difficult opponent.
They were unable to get back to winning ways on Saturday, drawing a third game in a row. This time it was 0-0 at Espanyol, with centre-back Miranda missing the second half after receiving a red card, which made things even more difficult.
The result means they are down to fourth after Valencia beat Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 on Friday—but Atleti shouldn't be too disheartened by this, as we spoke about in our Liga preview. The race between Atletico and Valencia was always likely to change, given their relative fixtures, and it will change again before the season's end—likely in two weeks' time if you're after an early prediction.
Diego Simeone's men have the quality and, importantly, mentality to come through this battle as the winners. But for this weekend, the celebrations belong to Nuno and co.
Winners: Real Madrid, Just to Get Back to Winning Ways Before El Clasico
5 of 6
Real Madrid were never likely to celebrate victory too much this weekend, no matter the scoreline or style. However, the fact they must beat Levante was never in doubt—and so they did, 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Gareth Bale scored both goals in the first half, his first strikes since late January against bottom club Cordoba—Levante are 18th.
Nothing less than a win would do this time out for Carlo Ancelotti and co. after successive defeats to Athletic Bilbao and Schalke and with El Clasico to come next time out. The win doesn't do anything but add another three points to the season's tally, but confidence and self-belief could only start to return once Real got themselves back on the right path—no matter the opposition or manner of victory.
They started to do that with this win and kept a clean sheet into the bargain.
Now, a vital week of preparation lies ahead before what could be a title showdown against Barcelona at Camp Nou.
Losers: The Entire Bottom 7, with the Marginal Exception of Almeria
6 of 6
Naturally, the teams at the bottom of the league table at this stage of the season are there for a reason: they lose more games than everybody else.
This time out, however, was a particularly disastrous weekend for all concerned. Six of the bottom seven tasted defeat in Gameweek 27, with only Almeria picking up a point after they held Villarreal to a 0-0 draw at home.
All of Eibar, Elche, Depor and Levante played top-five clubs so at least have some excuse, but Granada went down 3-1 at Rayo Vallecano and Cordoba lost 2-0 at Malaga, both teams who can look impressive in attack at times but also woeful at the back when things don't go well.
It looks all over for bottom club Cordoba, who are miles from safety, but even Almeria's point only pushes them outside the drop zone by way of goal difference—which isn't a factor at season's end, as head-to-head takes precedence. They, Depor and Levante all sit level on 25 points after this weekend.
