First Classification
Few brushstrokes leave the
League
when crossing its equator that beyond the leadership of
Atlético de Madrid
.
It is the greatest certainty that leaves a strange championship, which started with the teams still carrying a heavy slab of suspension by Covid that lengthened the calendar too much and that has ended up turning the classification into gibberish.
And there are still teams that have pending matches in the first days that prevent them from clearly defining their objectives.
The rest, they have them in a handkerchief.
In the head, the rojiblancos stand out.
With two games to play, they have only lost one: the derby against
Real Madrid
, the only one that watches him from a distance, but without being able to hunt him down.
The
club
did not grab the fight and
Real Sociedad
, who held the duel hand in hand with athletic, has been off the
hook.
In the fight for Europe, everything remains to be said.
Sevilla
,
Villarreal
and the San Sebastian team are running, without losing sight of Granada.
Behind them, a squad in which
Celta
and
Cádiz stand out
, but where anything can happen.
This group will not be refined until in mid-March all the games that are still pending since the start of the championship have been recovered.
Only seven points separate the eighth from the first who falls in relegation places.
Two newly promoted have been in them for weeks now:
Elche
and
Huesca
, who are beginning to take down and trust their reaction to Pacheta's arrival on the bench.
But, although not with the water up to their neck, they cannot be neglected illustrious that have slipped on the table with a very bad half of the season.
This is the case of
Athletic
, which can find momentum in the victory in the Super Cup and the arrival of Marcelino,
Getafe
and, above all,
Valencia
, which has gone from fighting for Champions positions to flirting with the places that condemn Second.
Atlético: With Suárez there are no doubts
Atlético has returned to the fight.
He could not sustain the pulse of Real Madrid and Barça last season but he has strengthened in a complicated market from which he has come out well.
The sale of Thomas, the departure of Morata and the sudden death of Diego Costa have not been a blow to Simeone.
They caught Luis Suárez, Kondogbia and Carrasco.
The doubts about the Uruguayan, whom Barça gave away, quickly dissipated to the rhythm of goals.
With just one loss and two draws, they are the strongest team of the title contenders.
Despite his four-point lead, he still has two first-round duels to play.
The athletic world shakes off the status of favorite, lest it weighs down, and remembers the fiasco in the Cup and the wear and tear that the Champions League supposes.
Villarreal: Emery's stripes
No experiments.
That was the premise with which Fernando Roig gave the order to prepare the season.
At the helm he put Unai Emery and put together a squad to get back on track for Champions.
He already had a lot at home and continues to give his best level.
This is the case of Pau Torres, Alcácer and, above all, Gerard Moreno, who is once again at the forefront of the national scorers table and prepares the passport for the European Championship.
Even so, he sought Parejo's vision of the game, Coquelin's fight and he even had Take Kubo left over, who has not found a place in the team.
Despite the first difficulties to set an eleven and a defined style, only the eight draws of this first round have been the small burden that has not taken him out of fourth place.
Granada: Without paying the European price
It will pay for the European adventure.
That was the general belief when Granada unexpectedly slipped between the teams that won the European place.
The appointment with history forced one season to be spliced with another due to the obligation to go through the previous rounds.
But it has not been that way.
Not only did he overcome the group stage and the Naples prize awaits him, but in the League he has managed to recover from a faltering start to regain his positive inertia and stay with 27 points, away from danger and in the middle of the fight to go back the continent next season.
Diego Martínez has not managed to make his players surprise the greats - they have been beaten by Atlético, Barça and Real Madrid - but he beats the teams of 'his' League.
Cádiz: the 'giant killer' surprise
Cádiz has not gone unnoticed.
His return to the First Division was celebrated, as was his ability to beat Barça at Carranza and Real Madrid at Valdebebas.
The dream of all newly promoted.
The only one that has resisted him has been Atlético, but nobody has won at Wanda.
It does not seem that Álvaro Cervera's team is going to have difficulties to maintain the category with its seven points advantage over the relegation zone.
In fact, his position contrasts with that of Huesca or Elche, the other debutants who are in trouble.
Even so, the Asturian coach does not want confidence and already insists the club, with a tight budget, on the need to find reinforcements in the winter market to underpin its continuity in the First Division.
Real Madrid: Zidane does not find the key
Although he looks at the leadership at four points, he does so with two more games that could end up opening a chasm.
That is why the feeling that surrounds Real Madrid is that Zinedine Zidane is not able to find the key to activate the team, which has closed the worst start of all seasons with the Frenchman on the white bench.
Without reinforcements in summer, and without the economic possibility of doing them in this January market, one of the team's burdens is the lack of a goal.
Benzema is the only one who maintains the banner with eight goals.
The next are Valverde and Casemiro.
No sign of Rodrygo or Hazard.
Neither from Asensio.
Despite the fact that mathematics keeps him alive, disaffection towards the team's game is detected, which can cure the Cup and, above all, the Champions League.
Barça: Neither with Koeman nor with Messi
Barça has not been able to pause its fall into hell.
The League escaped him, he left the Champions League humiliated and did not alleviate the departure of Quique Setién because then the threat of Messi's flight came to revolutionize everything.
But it only took away a president who was already highly questioned and opened an electoral climate that airs all kinds of miseries, from economic to sports.
Ronald Koeman can't make the team work.
He shows himself half done, without defensive solidity and without his punching ability to alleviate the rest of the errors.
All without the protection of Messi, in an intermittent version.
Unable to win their duels against Real Madrid and Atlético, the defeat in the Super Cup is once again a hard emotional blow.
Valencia: sustained decomposition
Valencia shot themselves in the foot the day its owner Peter Lim decided to demolish the project built by Marcelino.
The consequences were paid last season, in which the team was left without European competition, increased with the sale of key players such as Parejo, Rodrigo or Ferran and had their climax in the absence of reinforcements and the threat of resignation of the newcomer Javi Grace.
Three factors that have caused the team to wander to the bottom of the standings, grabbing Gayà or Soler as the only arguments and waiting for the explosion of homegrown players that the economic crisis has put in the First Division too quickly.
With 19 points, three from the relegation places, he has to pick up the pace as soon as possible.
Getafe: a dangerous step backwards
Neither Bordalás wanted to continue nor Getafe was convinced.
And of course, what happens happens.
The European classification escaped him in his sigh and extending the season due to the feat of sneaking into the knockout stages of the Europa League is something that has taken its toll.
The people of Madrid do not find the solidity on which they built past successes, which led them to the edge of fourth place.
Despite having settled in the middle of the table, and with a game less than most of his pursuers, he knows that he cannot be distracted.
The summer market was reluctant, that is why they have not hesitated to strengthen themselves now with Take Kubo and Aleñá, and Bordalás does not even rule out fishing some more assignment that allows him to continue climbing so as not to suffer.
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