La Liga Week 31 Standings & Table: Barcelona Has Upsetting Draw Against Sevilla, Real Madrid Dominate Eibar to Make First Place Run
Maybe the whole "Real Madrid collapse" was a bit exaggerated.
After having just three victories in six games from Weeks 22 to 28, Real Madrid has turned things around in a hurry.
Real Madrid has successfully won their last three games in dominating fashion, outscoring their opponents, 14-1. Iker Casillas appears to be a brick wall in front of the net, Cristiano Ronaldo is doing Cristiano Ronaldo things, and this club is moving up the standings.
Ronaldo recently notched his 300th career goal as a member of Real Madrid. Ronaldo has scored a goal in each of the last four games, including an incredible five-goal performance against Granada in Week 29. With his last goal against Eibar, Ronaldo now has a league-leading 38 goals. Catching Lionel Messi's 50-goal record doesn't seem so crazy after all.
Mexican forward Javier Hernandez silenced much of his critics with a goal, his fourth of the season.
Carlo Ancelotti has this team 24-1-6 with 73 points. Fortunately for them, Barcelona stumbled a bit against their opponent in Week 31. Real Madrid will take on Malaga next week.
Speaking of Barcelona, they tied with Sevilla, 2-2. Messi and Neymar each scored a goal in the opening 31 minutes, and it looked to be another Barcelona victory. However, Sevilla came back from a 2-0 deficit thanks to Kevin Gameiro scoring in the 84th minute. Barcelona still gets a point, but not being able grab all three for an expected victory is rather disappointing.
It's no shocker to see the dynamic South American duo of Messi and Neymar score, but for Barcelona's defense to fall apart and Claudio Bravo to allow a late goal was very unexpected. Now, it's not panic time for Barcelona, as they are still in first place in the standings, but every week is extremely crucial going forward. Real Madrid won this week over Barcelona by two points, statistically speaking.
Barcelona has a very tough match against Valencia next week.
Atletico Madrid, the defending Spanish league champions, also had a disappointing draw. Atletico Madrid tied with Malaga bringing their point value to just 66. It will be extremely unlikely for them to catch and surpass Barcelona or Real Madrid now.
What we have is a classic two-team race between Real Madrid and Barcelona for first place with just seven weeks remaining. The two clubs split games with one another this season, 1-1, so they're even in that category.
La Liga Week 31 Standings, Top 5 Teams
1. Barcelona: 24-3-4, 75 points
2. Real Madrid: 24-1-6, 73 points
3. Atletico Madrid: 20-6-5, 66 points
4. Valencia: 18-8-4, 62 points
5. Sevilla: 19-5-7, 62 points
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