Barca virtually the league champions of Spain, a mid season review

We look back to how Barca has overturned their situation from the Luis Enrique times to become the virtual winners, far ahead mathematically to clinch the title midway in Spain.
An Ernesto level turnaround in the final 45 minutes at the Capital ensured Barcelona cushion on the way to La liga crown. While at the start of the premier fixture of the Spanish league, the unfurling of a banner beaming "White Christmas" couldn't quite hold true for the next 90 minutes as the Blaugrana took charge of the game as it went through. At the start of the season, a team struggling to come out of the shadows of Neymar's surprise exit to PSG is now on top of the league with a 14 point lead over their arch rivals  Real Madrid. The non-favourites for Liga in August came as favorites for this game. Much resounding appreciation for Valverde is due here, with an early injury to Dembele his team from attacking front was back to zero. The consequent winning streak since then in the league and much-balanced performances in the European outings did not come to FC Barcelona fans as a surprise.

There were reasons behind, first that Valverde made it clear in his day one press conference itself "The focus would be on defense". 

It was clear when his team played the way they were structured was to defend first. This was somewhat closer to Pep(not that good!) though far from Luis Enrique's attacking Barca.
Barca's all-round display is much credited to some good display from his players who were not playing that well last season, Jordi Alba, the surprise signing Paulinho all to much credit have done immensely well. The display of football from Umtiti and German shot-stopper Ter Stegen as always been rock solid making Barca the best defensive team in Europe. The result is that Barcelona leads the chart of most clean sheets in La Liga(11) which shows their organized defensive display.
                                   While from here on, the title is only for FC Barcelona to lose as their 14 gap from the main rivals and having already visited Bernabeu,Wanda Metropolitano,Mestalla,Pizuan the path from here gets a tad easy for the Catalan Giants. As Zidane and Valverde claim "it's too early to call the league off" might not just be the case as Barca look in a comfortable position with Valencia not as threatening as they seemed and Madrid still missing their edge this season,
more to come...stay tuned to La Liga Cafe.

Atletico Madrid: Lost Not Broken

With nearly half of the season already over, Los Colchoneros have had somewhat of a mix bag of a season. Critics have left them dry, but fans still endear at the growth of the club in recent years.

Usually, being the only Madrid club as the closest challengers to Barcelona for this season's La Liga would bring accolades for the club. However, Diego Simeone and his boys had a disastrous European campaign which saw them finish third behind the Italians, AS Roma and the Londoners, Chelsea, whilst losing to the latter on both occasions. By comparison, in previous few seasons Atlético topped their Champions League groups while being paired with the likes of Juventus & Bayern Munich.

Atlético have looked miserable on their European outings, which has already ushered some critics into becoming naysayers as the verdict being the lack of creativity upfront. With the transfer ban being uplifted in January, the return of Diego Costa after three and a half seasons is almost wish come true situation for their fans, as his replacement and their top scorer for past three seasons, Antoine Griezmann have almost looked lonely upfront, prompting the Frenchman to go deeper in the midfield to receive the ball.

This was more than evident in the 1-0 loss against Espanyol, as Fernando Torres looks to be enjoying a giant favour by the club for his brilliant exploits early in his career and Kevin Gameiro, who looked awful and seems to labour around the pitch far too often. With not even half of the season done, top of the table have already seen Barcelona taking a nine point lead and stake their claim on the title well in advance. This brings us to the Europa League where Atlético can shine with two great arrivals in Costa, who had a very public dispute with Antonio Conte after the Italian coach sent him the infamous text and Vitolo, the Spanish winger which Atlético signed from Sevilla in the summer transfer window, but could not register him in the team because of the transfer ban, thus was sent out on loan to Las Palmas.

Antoine Griezmann have looked alone upfront all season.

With January's first fixture being the Copa del Rey clash against Lleida, everyone involved with the club will be hoping that these new signings will rejuvenate the rest of the team and ignite that passion which the world has seen from them in recent years and triumph the second half of the season.

All cannot be blamed on a single factor as even Diego Simeone have in certain times looked lost during urgent situations. Yannick Carrasco, who was a revelation last term, scoring 14 goals in all competitions has lost his place since September. Constant transfer talks about their star, Griezmann to bigger clubs certainly plays with the mental aspects of the game and this season have seen Simeone's mentality of team over individual take a toll.

These are the rough turns that every club goes through as even their much celebrated Madrid counterparts have seen them tumbling this season after back to back European glories. The question should be as to how will Atlético take the second half of the season. Will they push for the La Liga and put pressure on Barcelona to make a slip? Will they find solace in dreams of lifting the Europa League after failing to lift the Champions League twice in recent years? For all it's worth, Atlético should look at the second half of the season with renewed hope and optimism which could see them lifting some major trophies and few more fans on the way.

REAL MADRID 0-3 BARCELONA: Messi, Suarez shine as Barcelona look to reclaim title come may.

An Unforgettable afternoon for Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu as they scored three past their arch-rivals in a thrilling encounter to go 14 points clear above Real Madrid, who currently lie in fourth(4th) place with a game in hand.
Messi showcased his talents once more he scored his 25th Classico goal from the penalty spot after Cavajal was red carded for handling the ball in the box. He went on to assist an Aleix Vidal goal in the 90th minute to seal the victory.

The game started with Madrid on the front foot from the start of kickoff.  Ronaldo scored a goal in the 2nd minute of the game, which was rightfully ruled offside by the linesman. Madrid went on to dominate the first half with waves of attacks. They were superior in the midfield and Barcelona defence managed to contain them in the first half. A Benzema strike which hit the post and numerous Ronaldo strikes which just didn’t find the back of the net thanks to the heroics of the Barcelona goalie TerStegan.

Players like Busquets and Messi were silent in the first half and failed to really make a significant impact in that half as Madrid were on top. The 2 good chances that fell to Barcelona in the first half all fell to Paulinho(Playing his first ever Classico) and both assisted by Messi but Keylor Navas made two brilliant saves.

The 2nd half came with so much promise as Barcelona found their form and were able to hold on to the ball well in the midfield. In the 54th minute, Busquets held the ball graciously to beat his marker then released the pass to Ivan Rakitic who ran through the heart of Madrid defence and delivered a fine through pass to S.Roberto who squared the ball first time to Luis Suarez to slot home the opening goal. It was the first time in the game where Barcelona opened up Madrid defense.

In the 63rd minute, Barcelona opened up Madrid defence once more with both Suarez and Messi back to back shot being saved by Keylor Navas before Daniel Carvajal handles the ball in the box as a Paulinho header was just creeping into the back of the net. He was shown a straight red and Messi was awarded the penalty. Messi converted from the penalty spot in the 64th minute as he fired a high shot to the right hand side of the goal to beat the Navas. Keylor Navas made some impressive saves to the game at 0-2 with hope still alive for Real Madrid.

Zidane brought on Bale and Asensio to try and get a point from the game. Barcelona where able to control the tempo of the game and nulled all Real Madrid’s attack. In the 93rd minute Messi dribbled passed Marcelo to set up a goal by Aleix Vidal to seal an emphatic victory. A game of two half’s which saw the Catalan giants come out on top. Messi will be going into the New Year as the Laliga leading goal scorer.

Barcelona has now won seven (7) of the last Classico’s played at the Santiago Bernabeu scoring 28 goals. In a post-match interview Marcelo praised Barcelona saying “Playing against Barca wears you down a lot. The second half was different. We did a good job in the first half but not the second. We were killed, that’s football, playing against Barca isn’t easy”.

 As the Bernabeu emptied, Cules went to the top of the stadium chanting “Visca Barca, Visca Catalunya” to add an extra political punch to Madrid. Real Madrid will look to play catch up to Barcelona as the title race is now in Barcelona hands. Or is it early to call?