La Liga Standings: The Top Leaders Spaced Thin, Who Will Be The Champion?
JAKARTA - Barcelona is able to keep their distance from leaders Atletico Madrid after a 2-1 win over Villarreal in Week 32 of the Spanish League at the Estadio de la Ceramica on Sunday.
Antoine Griezmann scored the Blaugrana's two goals against the team nicknamed The Yellow Submarine, while the home team scored the first goal through Samuel Chukwueze.
The victory leaves Barcelona in third place in the Spanish League standings with 71 points, equaling Real Madrid's points above, and only three points from Atletico Madrid in the first place.
Meanwhile, Villarreal stuck in seventh place with 49 points.
Atleti itself slipped after losing 1-2 at home to Athletic Bilbao, Monday morning western Indonesia time. With this result, Atletico failed to distance themselves from the pursuit of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Los Colchoneros are only two points ahead of Los Blancos and Los Cules.
Meanwhile, Bilbao rose to 10th place with 41 points. Los Leones still have one game left to play.
The day before, Real Madrid was also stuck at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano. Zinedine Zidane's men only drew 1-1 against Real Betis.
Real Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane admits his team lost sharpness. Just like last week's 0-0 draw against Getafe, Real looked less biting on the front lines.
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"We lost a lot in today's attack," Zidane told reporters after the match.
"We gave the ball a lot and we weren't too sharp upfront. We were good at defending, but we lost two points."
These results leave Los Blancos in a difficult position in their race for the La Liga title. Real is just one point behind leaders Atletico two weeks ago after beating Barcelona 2-1.
However, they are now two points behind their city rivals with five games remaining.
Even so, Zidane will not think about whether his team has lost momentum in this thrilling hunt with Barcelona and Sevilla also having a chance to catch Atletico.
"There are five games left that are still long and we will continue to fight. La Liga does not end for us tonight, other teams still have to play," he added.
Before undergoing the next Spanish League match, Real will host Chelsea in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday.