Atlético Atlético leaves the League in a handkerchief
Barça Griezmann puts pressure on the leader with a double
Real Madrid Zidane's team draw against Betis
Now that they say that football is losing interest and emotion, the classification of the Spanish League raises its hand and asks for its reply.
There appear
Atlético
with
73 points
,
Real Madrid
with
71
,
Barcelona
also with
71
and still one game to play -this Thursday against Granada- and
Sevilla
with
70.
Maximum equality in the fight for the title in the absence of only five days for the outcome of the championship.
With this scenario, the questions practically arise by themselves.
Is the Spanish championship more even?
Yes, although a series of nuances must be added to grant it the honorary title.
Among the leagues of 20 teams with three points per win (since 1997/98), it certainly is. The most similar were 2006/07 - won by
Fabio Capello's
Real Madrid
- and 1999/00 - Deportivo's -, in which the top four were within six points on matchday 33.
If you dive a little deeper into history, two precedents appear in which the margin was three points (1972/73) and four (1980/81).
Of course, by then the victories were worth two points.
If the current rule of three points per win is applied to those championships, the difference becomes six and five, respectively.
The comparison with the Leagues prior to 1971/72 could not be established, since each of them had a maximum of 30 days.
And the most even in Europe?
Right now, it is.
Now, if Barcelona win on Thursday and the gap between the first and the fourth becomes four points, the honor would be shared. You have to dig deep into European football to discover that the Albanian and Bosnia-Herzegovina leagues have their top four finishers separated by a four-point margin. Of course, the Albanian after 29 days and the Bosnian after 27. Comparison with the rest of the continent's championships deserves the asterisk that several of them, in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, have just started and have only played a few days, so they have been left out of the analysis. Among the five major leagues, the only one in a similar situation is the French, with four teams in six points, the first three - Lille, PSG and Monaco - in only two. In the rest, Manchester City,Bayern and Inter are already virtual champions.
Is Sevilla the best fourth-placed ever at this point?
Yes.
And there is no nuance here.
There was never a fourth classified with 70 points on matchday 33
.
Not even extrapolating the data from the two-point-per-win leagues and at least 34 matches -between 1971 and 1995- is one better than the current Seville.
The record so far was held by Valencia on 14/15, which had 68 points at this point.
In fact, there have only been three classified quarters that have exceeded 70 points at the end of the championship, not counting the two leagues in which there were 22 teams and 42 matches: the aforementioned Valencia of 14/15 (77) and that of the 17/18 (73) and Sevilla of 16/17 (72).
That is to say, with a single victory in the five games that remain, Lopetegui's team will guarantee itself to be, at the very least, the second best quarter-finisher of all time.
And who will win the League?
For this question, of course, there is no certain answer without resorting to clairvoyance or paranormal powers.
History, yes, offers clues.
In 20 of the 23 leagues
of 20 teams and three points for victory already completed, the one
who reached the 33rd day as leader ended up lifting the title
.
The exceptions are the Madrid of 03/02 - it had one point less than Deportivo and Real Sociedad - and that of 07/06 - Barcelona was two points ahead - and Valencia of 02/01 - it was tied with the Madrid-.
So, perhaps, Barça-Granada on Thursday is even more important than it seems.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
sports
FútbolJavier Tebas: "Florentino Pérez lies, they have gone to burst the system"
LaLigaMilitao, Zidane's great solution: shyness, kites and an extreme bubble due to Covid
LaLiga Santander A 41-day madness: the fields in which the most even League in almost two decades will be decided
See links of interest
2021 business calendar
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Oscar winners
Torino - Napoli
Rayo Vallecano - Albacete
Lazio - Milan
Eibar - Real Sociedad
Sabadell - Mallorca