Trailing from the 4th minute of play, FC Barcelona suffered its fourth defeat of the season in the league on Sunday, against promoted Leganés (0-1), leaving its competitors in the title race, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid.
Cooled from the start by a header from a corner by the opposing captain Sergio Gonzalez (4th, 1-0), Barça (1st, 38 points) – still leader of the Spanish championship – never managed to come back to the score despite a clear domination (80% possession) and numerous opportunities, and allows Atlético (2nd, 38 points), earlier defeater of Getafe (1-0), to return to their level with one more match to play. The two teams will face off next weekend at the Montjuic Olympic Stadium in a summit clash for first place.
Held in check (3-3) by its modest neighbor Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, Real Madrid (3rd, 37 points) ultimately did not have such a bad operation and could quickly take the lead in the event of success during its two next meetings, against Sevilla FC and Valencia at the start of January.
Author of an almost perfect start to the season, the Catalan club has won only one of its last six La Liga matches (3 draws, 2 defeats) and has seen its comfortable lead melt away day after day since its defeat in the Clasico on the pitch of the Santiago Bernabeu, at the end of October (4-0).
A decline from which Atlético Madrid was able to benefit, which earlier, on Saturday, signed an eleventh consecutive victory in all competitions by narrowly winning (1-0) at home against its neighbor Getafe, thanks to a goal of Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth.
The former Villarreal scorer, who came on in the second half, gave his team three valuable points by heading a cross from Argentinian Nahuel Molina (69th, 1-0), allowing Atlético to make a huge move in the standings by overtaking Real Madrid and coming back to equal points with FC Barcelona. Author of his seventh achievement in La Liga – his 24th of the year 2024 – since his signing this summer for 32 million euros, the Norwegian colossus is the player who has scored the most goals over the past year, behind the Polish Robert Lewandowski (27).
In crisis at the end of October after setbacks against Benfica (4-0), Lille (1-3) and Betis Sevilla (1-0), the Colchoneros have since not experienced defeat and completely relaunched the title race in Liga, while Barça has had a series of poor performances.
In the other matches of the day, Betis Sevilla (9th, 24 points) carried out a very good operation by winning 1-2 on the lawn of Villarreal (6th, 26 points), despite more than an hour having passed at ten after the expulsion of the Argentinian Chimy Avila, and Athletic Bilbao (4th, 33 points) was held in check (1-1) at Alavés (17th, 16 points). Real Sociedad (7th, 25 points), which remained on five consecutive victories, was for its part slowed down at Anoeta (0-0) by Las Palmas (14th, 19 points).
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