Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid have spent the past three weeks hunting down Barcelona and today both clubs have the chance to overtake the faltering La Liga leaders.
Second-placed Atletico have bridged a nine-point gap and are only behind Luis Enrique’s side due to their inferior head-to-head record as they prepare to play away against Athletic Bilbao.
Real are one point behind Barca, who are experiencing their worst domestic form since 2003, losing three La Liga matches in a row and drawing one since banging in 15 goals in three crushing wins early last month.
Photo: AP
Real host fourth-placed Villarreal, looking for an eighth consecutive league victory, immediately after Barcelona try to stop the rot away against RC Deportivo de La Coruna.
From being a one-horse race, it now looks like being a thrilling three-way fight for the title and Atletico’s striker Fernando Torres said his side are reaping the rewards for never giving up even when Barca were streaking ahead.
“You should never stop believing, anything can happen in football, who would have said we would end up in this situation,” Torres said at an event organized by telecommunications company LG on Monday.
“I have no idea what is happening with Barcelona, but football is like this; there have been moments when we’ve gone through bad patches and we’ve come out fighting,” he said. “Just imagine if we’d given up? We’re all excited and enjoying this great moment but we hope and believe the best is still to come.”
Barcelona must reverse an amazing loss of form to win all five of their remaining La Liga games to be assured of retaining the title.
The Catalan giants have lost four of their past five in all competitions, having previously enjoyed a 39-game unbeaten run stretching back six months.
The three top teams face tough tests on an evening of action that will go a long way to settling the title with the fixture list for all three favorable in the final four games.
Barca are up first as they travel to Galicia in a desperate search to snap their worst run of league defeats in 13 years.
Enrique and key defender Gerard Pique insisted Barca can and will win the league if they play like they did against Valencia on Sunday, despite slipping to a 2-1 defeat thanks to a mixture of bad luck, poor finishing and a brilliant goalkeeping display by Diego Alves.
“If there is a team capable of doing it and much more given what they have done, it is this Barca,” Enrique said. “We don’t have any margin for error, but I prefer to lose like this than win playing badly.”
“Football is like this, sometimes it is marvelous, sometimes it is so cruel,” he said.
However, Pique’s absence at the heart of Barca’s defense through suspension will be a huge loss for Enrique, with Marc Bartra expected to cover in the absence of Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen.
Despite Sunday’s 2-1 home defeat by Valencia, Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said it was not a time to panic.
“It’s in our hands and we’re going to turn it around,” said Pique, who is suspended for the game against Deportivo.
“We believe we are capable of winning the five games left and we’re going to have to do that,” he said.
While Barcelona have been caught in a downward spiral, Atletico have scored 11 goals in successive victories over Real Betis, RCD Espanyol and Granada, although they will be without influential captain Gabi due to suspension today.
Atletico face a daunting trip to Athletic Bilbao with the Basques still eyeing Champions League soccer next season, having moved to within six points of fourth-placed Villarreal at the weekend.
A 2-1 victory at San Mames propelled Atletico toward the title two years ago and Diego Simeone’s men could be further boosted by the absence of Bilbao’s two top scorers this season.
Athletic Bilbao went fifth in the table after beating Malaga 1-0 at the weekend, but will still be missing injured top scorer Aritz Aduriz, although forward Inaki Williams could return.
“We have the possibility to play an important game in Bilbao and continue competing in the four games left afterwards,” Simeone said when quizzed on Atletico’s title chances. “It will be difficult, but we have to do what the schedule demands of us and that is win, win and win again.”
Real Madrid have a full squad available against Villarreal, a game goalkeeper Keylor Navas knows they must win to take advantage of Barcelona’s unexpected slide.
“You should never lose faith and we have to keep going, we have to win all the games we have left and fight for the trophies,” the Costa Rican said.
Real will have the advantage of knowing what Barca and Atletico have done when they kick-off in the late game at home against Villarreal.
Zinedine Zidane could afford the luxury of resting the likes of Sergio Ramos, Casemiro and Luka Modric for Saturday’s 5-1 rout of Getafe on Saturday with all three expected to return.
The much-criticized Danilo is also expected to start at right-back with Dani Carvajal a major injury doubt.
There are also huge clashes at the bottom of the table with four teams separated by two points in the battle to avoid relegation.
Two of them face each other as Granada host Levante UD tomorrow, looking to open up a gap on the bottom three.
Getafe go in search of their first win in 14 games against Real Sociedad, while Real Sporting de Gijon look to take advantage of Sevilla’s poor recent run when they host the Europa League semi-finalists at El Molinon.
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