When Lionel Messi lifted his shirt in front of the south end of the Santiago Bernabeu crowd, it was as symbolic as the time Achilles eviscerated the prince of Troy in front of his own people. Like Troy with Achilles, Real Madrid fans didn’t need any introduction and they could only watch as he combined class, artistry and ruthlessness in bringing their heroes to the floor.
Real Madrid had one job and one job only, not lose the game. But as they lost their heads one at a time, Lionel Messi wrote his name on the grass of immortality and opened the La Liga.
Both teams are level on points, though Real Madrid have a game in hand, here are four things that will define the league.
Messi vs Real Madrid’s squad
This has been the salient difference between both teams and the overriding theme of the season. Barcelona are where they are partly due to Neymar’s ingenuity and largely to Lionel Messi’s brilliance. A fish stands a better chance of surviving without water than Barcelona winning the league without Messi. The Argentine with 31 goals, has been responsible for 33% of Barcelona’s goals this season. That is just four less than Real Madrid’s BBC combined.
Real Madrid on the other hand, have shown they don’t need the BBC firing before they win games. This is a team that replaces itself so effectively and some school of thoughts even opines that the team plays better with the second strings than with the BBC.
Though that doesn’t necessarily translate to Real Madrid playing as a unit, sometimes they have lacked rhythm and cohesion but it does mean they have abundance of individual quality. Real Madrid have 19 different scorers this season, with only Dani Carvajal yet to score but if he does score before the end of the league, it would be a Spanish record.
All season long, it has been a battle between Lionel Messi and the whole of Real Madrid, and on Sunday he won the battle, but can one man win a league title? History suggests it has happened before.
It is now a sprint
Both teams have tagged their next set of games as finals and rightly so. Five finals in the case of Barcelona and six in the case of Real Madrid. A marathon becomes a sprint when the athletes are still within touching distance of themselves and very little separates Real Madrid and Barcelona at the moment. It is quite clear, if Real Madrid wins all or wins five games and one draw, they will become champions regardless of what Barcelona does.
It has come down to who is more equipped for a sprint and on the evidence of this season, Real Madrid is the closest thing to Usain Bolt in Spain. Real Madrid have gone on a run of consecutive wins, more than any team in Spain. They have won five or more consecutive games, twice already in the league. While Barcelona’s best run of winning six consecutive games, came just once. Barcelona has been a bank of inconsistency this season and certainly they should be running bankrupt right now because they can’t afford it anymore.
The league is down to who wins the sprint.
Real Madrid’s road form
Four of Real Madrid’s last six games will be on the road (Deportivo, Granada, Celta Vigo, Malaga), whoever wrote La Liga’s script should be sued for plagiarism because this is something out of “Mad Max”. The threat of these teams doesn’t lie in the quality of their players but their style is capable of turning a smooth ride into that of Benin-Ore road. Real Madrid have lost just two of 15 away games (Sevilla and Valencia); those two they get to face at the Santiago Bernabeu in the coming weeks.
Deportivo used to be an unpleasant ground for Real Madrid but not since Manuel Pellegrini broke the 19 years curse in 2010. Granada are still running their three points bonanza despite the arrival of Tony Adams which leaves Celta Vigo and Malaga as the biggest threat Real Madrid will face on the road.
Barcelona’s struggles against the weaker teams
Barcelona’s struggles against “weaker oppositions” in the league this season has been more open to the eyes than Cossy’s cleavage. All four of their defeats have come against teams in the lower end of the table. With a fixture list that includes bitter neighbors Espanyol, Las Palmas and Eibar, there are still room for worries.
With Champion League out of the way, Barcelona should be better refreshed to take on this opponent, but that can also be a gift or a curse.
Written by Joseph Bassey – follow on Twitter @akajoebass
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