“This is not goodbye to the league,” Carlo Ancelotti said but no one was really listening and even he didn’t sound sure, not yet. Saturday evening at the Santiago Bernabéu and it was done. Real Madrid had just drawn 1-1 with Atlético, leaving Barcelona to slip out of sight at the top, the only winners those watching in a city 600km away. If this was Diego Simeone’s final derby in the capital – the underwhelming final chapter in a rivalry he revived and suffered like no one else, a once epic series slowing to a close – he could at least depart having denied Real the title, his 10 men taking their hopes away. Or so it goes.
Instead, it turned out Ancelotti was right; turned out Thibaut Courtois was too. Twenty-four hours is a long time in football: down Real Madrid’s way, 24 seconds is. And by the following evening Barcelona had lost and it was back on again.
“The point doesn’t taste like much although it’s better than nothing,” Courtois had said after the derby, but it didn’t feel like it then. Although Álvaro Rodríguez, an 18-year-old playing only his second game but destined to play many more, had equalised José Giménez’s opener, echoes of Raúl were not enough. Madrid were seven points behind. Barcelona had a game and the title in hand. Speaking to Ancelotti after the game, Real’s former midfielder Guti began his question noting that it was “practically over”, while the press conference preamble mentioned maths, and everyone knows what that means: forget it. Mathematically, it’s not over, but … But, let’s face it, it’s finished, and in February.
It was all over bar the shouting, although there was plenty of that. Atlético had been down to 10 for half the match after Ángel Correa had given Antonio Rüdiger a dig in the ribs with his elbow, making the last five men sent off in the derby Atlético players. “It wasn’t enough to tumble a guy who’s 1.94[m],” Simeone insisted afterwards; at the time he had stood on the touchline measuring the difference, one arm up, one down. “Nothing new at the Bernabéu,” Atlético tweeted. A photo of “our ‘aggressor’s’ leg” went up showing two not especially remarkable scratches. “Enough already,” Antoine Griezmann declared. “Maybe next time we’ll start with 10,” Jan Oblak said. Atlético’s chief executive, Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, put out a statement calling it unacceptable, declaring “we always suffer this against this team”, insisting “we can’t normalise what is abnormal”.
And yet ultimately the derby seemed to have done more damage to Real. Unable to raise themselves again – “This is not the champions,” ran the cover of AS – there was little really created until the final minutes of a game of few chances, the league lost. “It was hard before, and it’s even harder now,” Ancelotti admitted to Guti. Asked if he was bidding farewell to the league, Real’s manager sat listening, left eyebrow gently lifting, gave a shrug Alan Partridge would have been pleased with, and said: “No, this was not goodbye.” Nor though, he admitted, was it good and there hadn’t been much conviction. “It’s more complicated now,” he conceded. “We have to fight to the end and see what happens.”
What happens? Shit happens, he knows. “I’ve lost a European Cup final 3-0 down at half-time,” Ancelotti says. He has also won a European Cup final 1-0 down in the 93rd minute. He won last year’s Champions League, from 2-0 down and 4-3 down and 5-3 down along the way, the most absurd thing ever. And last week’s Champions League meeting at Anfield, 2-0 down in 14 minutes. This is the club too that turned the title race around in 18 ridiculous seconds, that made a myth of the remontada even when it wasn’t real. But still no one expected this, which was probably their first mistake.
“Atlético distance Madrid from the league,” said AS; a distance so big that they could only see Barcelona “with a telescope”. Marca’s cover declared “Atlético had knocked Real out of the league”. The Catalan papers meanwhile were getting giddy: this was “a golden opportunity”, El Mundo Deportivo cheered. “This league cannot escape!” shouted Sport.
Or perhaps it can. Barcelona had won seven in a row. They had won 12 of their last 13. They had only been defeated once – way back in October, against Madrid. They had only dropped points twice since the opening day. They had let in one goal in seven games and seven all season. All they had to do was win against Almería, who had let in six the week before, whose coach was under pressure, and who had started the day in the relegation zone, to go 10 points clear.
A superb strike from El Bilal Touré was the only goal of the game. “This was a historic day,” Almería’s coach, Rubi, said. “Unexpected,” he called it, speaking for everyone. “We didn’t expect to lose,” Frenkie de Jong admitted, possibly saying more than he meant to. It wasn’t just that they lost, either: it was that they deserved to, that they were just, well, nothing. Pedri didn’t play, neither did Ousmane Dembélé, Jules Koundé nor Alejandro Balde Ronald Araújo didn’t play, until he was sent on as an emergency striker for the last 20 minutes. Eric García did. Barcelona didn’t manage a shot on target until Ángel Alarcón, an 18-year-old who had only played four minutes in La Liga before, came on. By which point, they were throwing balls into the box. Forty crosses Almería faced, Rodrigo Ely and Srdjan Babic endlessly heading them out of harm’s way.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been such a huge surprise. Barcelona have won 1-0 seven times this season: in four of those Pedri has scored the only goal and he was missing, the one man who could also offer something a little more subtle, a little more incisive. Robert Lewandowski has been off form since the World Cup and barely saw the ball, which is becoming a recurring theme. Worse, he departed Almería injured. Looking at the bench, there was not much there that offered a way back in: from players or coach. Looking on the pitch, there wasn’t much either, only Ferran Torres occasionally looking as if he might find a way. They didn’t compete or rebel.
Barcelona had just come back from Old Trafford in the Europa League and were just about to go the Santiago Bernabéu in the cup. There was something about the night before that somehow made this feel inevitable too, something in the fact that it seemed done which helped ensure it wasn’t, which is why it hurt them so much. “Barcelona get scared,” Marca’s covered suggested which may now be true, and it surely won’t be long before the charmingly named crappingthemselvesometer gets wheeled out again.
“You can’t win without passion, desire and enthusiasm,” Xavi said. He noted that it is three years since Barcelona won the league, sounding like a man confronted with the possibility that it could still be four. Suddenly, it was open again. The old favourite reappeared: there is league. And, said AS, it is “on fire!” “Barcelona give Madrid life,” said Sport’s cover and when you give Madrid life they have a nasty habit of taking yours. Next up: Betis v Madrid and Barcelona v Valencia, then Madrid v Espanyol and Athletic v Barcelona, and then el clásico, one of three in a month.
“It’s a pisser,” Garcia said. “I’m very angry,” Xavi insisted. “Today was the day, a day to strike a blow. Not a definitive one but a very important one. Real Madrid slipped up and we couldn’t do that, not today. This was the worst game of the season, in attack and defence, in construction and intensity. We had no intensity, no desire and that’s what worries me. In the first half there was no passion or soul. Nothing came off. I’m angry because this was a chance to go 10 points clear. We have to say sorry to the fans. We have wasted a golden opportunity. You can’t just win the league with ease: we’re competing against Real Madrid.”
Elche 2-3 Betis, Espanyol 2-1 Mallorca, Cádiz 1-0 Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid 1-1 Atlético, Valencia 1-0 Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao 2-3 Girona, Celta Vigo 3-0 Valladolid, Almería 1-0 Barcelona, Sevilla 2-3 Osasuna.
Monday Villarreal v Getafe
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 23 | 37 | 59 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 23 | 29 | 52 |
| 3 | Real Sociedad | 23 | 9 | 43 |
| 4 | Atletico Madrid | 23 | 14 | 42 |
| 5 | Real Betis | 23 | 7 | 40 |
| 6 | Rayo Vallecano | 23 | 4 | 34 |
| 7 | Osasuna | 23 | -1 | 33 |
| 8 | Athletic Bilbao | 23 | 7 | 32 |
| 9 | Mallorca | 23 | -3 | 31 |
| 10 | Villarreal | 22 | 2 | 31 |
| 11 | Girona | 23 | 1 | 30 |
| 12 | Espanyol | 23 | -5 | 27 |
| 13 | Celta Vigo | 23 | -8 | 27 |
| 14 | Sevilla | 23 | -7 | 25 |
| 15 | Almeria | 23 | -12 | 25 |
| 16 | Cadiz | 23 | -17 | 25 |
| 17 | Valladolid | 23 | -17 | 24 |
| 18 | Valencia | 23 | 0 | 23 |
| 19 | Getafe | 22 | -9 | 22 |
| 20 | Elche | 23 | -31 | 9 |
