La Liga Winners and Losers from Week 32: Lionel Messi Nets 400th Barcelona Goal
A big weekend in la Liga saw some important, and quite possibly telling, results in the races at the top end of the table.
We of course look at the big match between Barcelona and Valencia, and all the teams around them which that fixture affected. We also look at the rest of the table to see how things are shaping up in the final run-in in the European spots, in mid-table and down at the bottom in the relegation battle.
Here are our big winners and losers from Gameweek 32 in Spain.
Winners: Barcelona for Their Resilience and Perseverance
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Barcelona were pushed all the way by Valencia once again and with these two sides taking fewer defeats in la Liga than anyone this season perhaps that was no surprise.
Once more though, the extra quality of the Catalan side inside the penalty area was the telling difference, with a goal in the first minute and another in the last minute of the match yielding a 2-0 win. Lionel Messi set up Luis Suarez with less than 60 seconds on the clock, before Messi himself netted in the dying moments—his 400th competitive goal for Barça.
A hard-fought win, and Barcelona remain two points clear at the top with perhaps only one more vastly difficult fixture to come.
Losers: Valencia and Sevilla in Their Respective Chases
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Los Che have to go down as losers despite their valiant performance, just being unable to find a way through against Barcelona—and combined with Atletico Madrid's victory, they lose ground on the race for third place.
With the top three all gaining automatic entry to next season's Champions League, there is of course huge incentive in continuing to try to haul back the gap—but it now stands at four points with just six matches to play, and Valencia have won only one of their last four. They are not in form, results-wise, at the most crucial time of all.
Sevilla meanwhile suffered a low-key 1-1 draw at Getafe, not a good result by any stretch of the imagination, and lost out on the chance to draw level with Valencia in fourth. It could prove to be a step too far for them too this term, though fifth in their case is more than respectable.
Winners: Atletico Madrid, Taking a Stranglehold on 3rd Place Again
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Where Los Che fell back, Atleti strengthened.
A 2-1 victory away to Deportivo La Coruna was typical Atletico Madrid: Taking charge, building up a comfortable lead and then sitting pretty to take the points, not letting the home team have too much momentum in the game despite Oriol Riera pulling one back late on. Antoine Griezmann scored both Atleti strikes early on—reaching 20 for the season in la Liga, behind only the big two in the Pichichi charts.
Atleti of course have the Champions League to worry about next. Their fixtures up to the end of the league season are fairly straightforward other than the clash against Barcelona in the penultimate gameweek, by which time third place could already be assured.
Losers: Chances Missed for the Teams in Trouble
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With no relegation-battling clubs playing each other this weekend, each of the bottom-seven sides had the opportunity to gain unexpected ground if they managed to pick up points against "better" clubs.
Elche are the last of those teams to play, hosting Real Sociedad on Monday night, but Depor, Almeria and Eibar all suffered narrow defeats over the course of the weekend. For those outside the drop zone, losing when others do isn't quite as much of an issue, but Almeria's 2-0 loss to the inconsistent Rayo Vallecano—beaten 6-1 last time out—was a fourth defeat in five games and leaves them 18th.
Even Granada, who drew 1-1 at home to Sevilla, must look at the weekend as a missed opportunity after they led for almost an hour before conceding an own goal.
Winners: Mid-Table Sides Not Letting Season Meander to a Finish
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Athletic Bilbao, Celta Vigo and Rayo Vallecano have been three extremely entertaining sides to watch at different times this season, albeit not always for the right reasons.
All three have had different paths throughout the campaign and all have ended up battling for mid-table places, with the Basque side leading the way up in eighth after returning to winning ways in style—4-0 at home to Getafe. Aritz Aduriz continues to bely his age as he rattled in another brace, though all the goals came after the away team were down to 10 men.
Celta's three wins in five have kept them in the top half, while Rayo, with their fantastically apt -21 goal difference, continue to enthral whether winning or losing, quite often heavily in either case.
Losers: Villarreal's Lack of Goals
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Villarreal were (rightly) lauded for their attacking play and stylish forwards earlier in the season, but that has all come to a crashing end over the last two months.
Since early March they haven't even scored a Liga goal from open play, with just a single Ikechukwu Uche penalty to their name in the past six fixtures. Luciano Vietto has fallen out of form, Denis Cheryshev has been a big miss through injury and the rotations for cup competitions hurt the team enormously.
The size of their fall can be measured by a dire result in a 0-0 draw at home to bottom club Cordoba at the weekend. It's time to prepare for next term for the Yellow Submarine, which will at least include another European adventure...assuming they win at least one or two more before the season's end.
