Real Madrid bolstered their already-dominant position in La Liga by defeating Atletico Madrid 2-0 on Sunday, moving 13 points clear of the defending champions.
Even though Atletico has a game in hand on their opponents, the margin is significant and maybe insurmountable, even in December.
After being beaten to a 2-2 draw away at Osasuna, Barcelona are currently 18 points behind the leaders and arguably irrelevant at the top.
Sevilla, who last won the Spanish title in 1946, are the closest challengers, eight points back, and having played a game fewer.
“We are favourites today, of course, you can say that,” said Carlo Ancelotti. “But if you relax it can cost you dearly. We have to keep going, to get closer to winning it as soon as possible.”
Madrid, though, were ominously superior in a derby that had its occasional bad-tempered moments but was largely neutralised by the home side’s dominance at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“The title race is still alive,” insisted Diego Simeone. “There are a load of matches left. Madrid have a lot of points, it’s true, but La Liga is complicated.”
Karim Benzema was passed fit enough to start and then, worryingly for Madrid went off again at half-time, but not before volleying them into the lead. Marco Asensio doubled the advantage in the second half.
There was never any sign of an Atletico comeback, with the home fans confident enough to cheer their team’s every pass in the 70th minute while some of Madrid’s defending late on was done at walking pace.
The 21-year-old Vinicius Junior was instrumental again, providing the assists for both goals, but it was the 36-year-old Luka Modric who ran the game, with the Croatian at his majestic, mesmerising best.
At one point in the second half the home crowd gave Modric a spontaneous standing ovation and he was so comfortable he even had time to applaud them back.
“It was an incredible performance, nothing else to say, it was spectacular,” said Ancelotti. “With the ball, without the ball, the consistency, the personality. It was extraordinary.”
Atletico’s attacking talents all failed to fire. Luis Suarez started on the bench and came on when Madrid’s ascendancy was established. Joao Felix and Thomas Lemar replaced Antoine Griezmann and Yannick Carrasco at half-time but Simeone’s attempts to shake life into his team came to nothing.
The first goal came from a mistake but Koke was in the middle of the pitch when his pass forward was cut out by Modric, the threat was not immediately obvious. But Casemiro played into Benzema and within seconds Vinicius was driving from the right and into the penalty area.
Atletico’s defence were dashing back with such intent they forgot about Benzema behind them, the Frenchman holding his position just inside the area for the cut-back. Vinicius found him with a floated pass and Benzema had time to send a perfect volley past Jan Oblak.
Felix went close soon after the restart but the changes made little difference to the balance of the game and just before the hour Madrid made it two.
Luka Jovic did well to feed Vinicius down the left and as the Brazilian approached the area he surprised everyone by playing right to Asensio, who slid his finish first time into the corner.
– Barcelona struggles once more –
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s dreadful week ended with a draw against struggling Osasuna in the 86th minute.
After losing at home to Real Betis last weekend and being knocked out of the Europa League by Bayern Munich on Wednesday, Barca could only manage a point against Osasuna, who are now in 10th place and have lost their past eight league games.
The manner of Osasuna’s equalizer, which came so late in the game after two 19-year-olds, Nico Gonzalez and Abde Ezzalzouli, had put them on course for victory, will add to Xavi Hernandez’s team’s deflation.
Football: Spanish La Liga table
Spanish La Liga table after Sunday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):
Real Madrid 17 13 3 1 39 15 42
Sevilla 16 10 4 2 26 11 34
Real Betis 17 10 3 4 30 18 33
Atletico Madrid 16 8 5 3 27 18 29
Real Sociedad 17 8 5 4 19 17 29
Rayo Vallecano 17 8 3 6 24 18 27
Valencia 17 6 7 4 26 23 25
Barcelona 16 6 6 4 25 19 24
Espanyol 17 6 5 6 19 18 23
Osasuna 17 5 7 5 17 21 22
Athletic Bilbao 17 4 9 4 13 12 21
Real Mallorca 17 4 8 5 16 23 20
Villarreal 16 4 7 5 18 17 19
Celta Vigo 17 4 5 8 17 21 17
Granada 15 3 6 6 16 23 15
Elche 17 3 6 8 16 24 15
Alaves 16 4 3 9 13 22 15
Getafe 17 2 6 9 11 20 12
Cadiz 16 2 6 8 14 30 12
Levante 17 0 8 9 16 32 8
AFP
