Can Real Madrid Bottle The La Liga?

With Real Madrid 2-0 down at Villarreal on Sunday evening, and set to lose top spot in the table with a second away defeat in four days, Blancos coach Zinedine Zidane withdrew holding midfielder Casemiro to send on playmaker Isco.

This did not seem like a good call at the time, especially as Villarreal were already dominating completely in midfield and easily finding space to attack the visitors’ back four. But the change was followed quickly by goals for Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and second substitute Alvaro Morata. Zidane’s side got the three points, and went back a point ahead of Barcelona at the top, with a game in hand over their chasers.

The controversial penalty awarded for handball by Villarreal captain Bruno for Ronaldo’s equaliser, and the goalkeeping mistake by backup Andres Fernandez in Morata’s winner, played their part in the comeback. But more important was just the huge momentum that quickly built-up, as all of Madrid’s attacking power just overcame the Villarreal defence — which until today was the best in La Liga.

Ronaldo also hit the post with a superb volley, and Morata missed a sitter late on.

Zidane said afterwards that his changes had made the difference, but he was not patting himself on the back. More he was pointing out his many attacking options — and this was while leaving €80 million Galactico James Rodriguez on the bench. Throwing more forwards at a problem does not always work [it didn’t against Valencia midweek], but on Sunday at the Estadio de la Ceramica it made Villarreal crack.

After having a whole week to prepare for a game for the first time in 2017, Barcelona Luis Enrique went for a tactical tweak for the visit to Atletico Madrid on Sunday afternoon, with his team playing two different formations — 3-4-3 on the ball, 4-4-2 without it.

The main effect of the change was to confuse his own players, who for the first half hour of the game looked completely at sea. Sergi Roberto was especially troubled by having to play both right-back and central midfield. Meanwhile those who the system was supposed to free up — Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta — were barely involved.

Especially unsettling was the rare sight of Gerard Pique thumping a long ball forward towards the head of Iniesta, who was unsurprisingly out-jumped in the air.

Barca won anyway. Messi started the move which lead to surprise selection Rafinha netting the opening goal and, after Diego Godin had equalised, the Argentine knocked home an 87th minute winner at a set-piece.

Afterwards, Luis Enrique was keen to stress how well the new system had worked even getting into an unfortunate debate with one blameless reporter who the Blaugrana coach felt had not understood the nuances of his plan.

The reality was that — not for the first time — Barca had not played very well at all but had been bailed out by Messi. The Barca No. 10 has eight goals in their eight La Liga games in 2017, even while playing a deeper role helping out the team’s often stretched midfield.

It must be pretty frustrating being Diego Simeone sometimes — especially when facing Barcelona domestically.

Simeone has still never come out on top in 11 La Liga meetings with Barca, and his Atletico Madrid were also eliminated from the Copa del Rey by the Catalans last month, despite dominating for much of the two-legged semifinal.

The two Champions League victories over Barca in 2014 and 2016 were of course huge, but the other 17 domestic games without a win seemed to be weighing much more on Simeone’s mind when he spoke in the Calderon press room afterwards.

“The same has happened in other games too,” the Argentine said ruefully when asked about his team having created many more clear chances than their opponents.

“In all the games there’s the feeling we could win, but they have shown their quality in the most important places, the penalty areas, which is decisive.”

Sometimes it has been Neymar, sometimes Luis Suarez, but mostly it has been Messi who has done the damage at the right time. It makes you wonder how tempted Simeone must be by the Argentina national team coach’s job — and chance to finally get the No. 10 on his own side.