Real Madrid's dominance and Barcelona's grit keep the race for the La Liga title close
Two weeks is a long time to stew on a narrow defeat, especially one that seemed so decisive. It turns out Real Madrid's 2-1 loss at Barcelona on the penultimate weekend of March was a painful sore that needed a radical cure. The goals Madrid nearly scored at Camp Nou, the chances missed were all revenged brutally in their next fixture.
The unlucky punchingbags for that pent-up frustration? Granada. On Sunday, Real Madrid had the midday kick-off slot, a chance to set down marker, a warning that Barcelona's four-point lead in La Liga will be chewed at aggressively by Madrid from now on. Poor Granada had been allotted the long journey up from Andalucia to be Madrid's Easter sacrifice. They'd rather have stayed at home. By the 25th minute, the contest was effectively over, Gareth Bale's goal the first of four Madrid strikes before half-time.
The other three came from Cristiano Ronaldo, a hat-trick within eight minutes setting yet another record for the prolific Portuguese striker. It was his 28th hat-trick for Real Madrid, in this, his sixth season with the club. No Real Madrid player has ever scored more hat-tricks for the club. One man has scored as many, Alfredo Di Stefano. He was there for 11 years. Here's an easy wager: Ronaldo will become, quite soon, the highest scorer of Real Madrid hat-tricks, ever.
He will become the club's greatest scorer, too, assuming he is still a Madrid player this time next year. By the time the walloping of Granada had reached 9-1, the startling final score, Ronaldo had scored five goals in the rout, taking him to 299 in his Madrid career. Another 24 and he matches Raul at the summit of the all-time scorers' list for the club. And another 24 goals should take Ronaldo well under 12 months to achieve. His total so far for this season is 36; he has scored 25 goals, or more, every season since 2009, when he came to Spain from Manchester United.
So much for the milestones. The consequences of a glorious afternoon for Madrid were several. Ronaldo, the first man to score five goals in a Liga match for 13 years, certainly quietened suggestions his 2015 so far was turning into a gloomy one by his surreal standards. Granada were overwhelmed; Madrid were also dazzling. Karim Benzema scored twice. James Rodriguez, injured for several months, started the match and thrived. After a long time without James and Luka Modric, head coach Carlo Ancelotti fielded his full, stellar front six -- Toni Kroos, Modric, James, Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo -- and their reunion produced the most emphatic win of the season.
"I think we have to say the team played the way it likes to play," observed Ancelotti, who also appreciated the applause of the crowd at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium. Midday kick-offs are still a novelty in Spanish soccer, and sometimes the effect of the early start is to mute the noise of the audience. Nine goals can rouse even the sleepiest spectator, however. Naturally, given the scoreline, the booing and jeering Madrid have heard in recent weeks was largely absent.
So, how much does the 9-1 whacking of Granada bear on the race for the title, which now has nine matches left? With their flurry of goals on Sunday, Madrid overtook Barcelona as the most potent attackers in La Liga. What they had not achieved by the end of the weekend was to close up their pursuit of Barca at the summit.
The mark of any champion is as much a capacity to grind out points as to gloriously bully inferiors. A resplendent Ronaldo dominated the day, and although neither Lionel Messi, nor Neymar, nor Luis Suarez did a great deal to answer that later on, when their Barcelona travelled to Celta Vigo, Barca still won, if only just.
Celta, 11th the table, took on Barcelona with the confidence of team who might as well have been second or third. They bettered Barca for much of the first-half, and several times threatened to make Madrid's day both rapturous and rewarding. "Celta were flying," said Luis Enrique, the Barcelona head coach, a man with an intimate knowledge of his opponents. He coached Celta last season. Part of him admired the way they forbade Barcelona to dictate terms: "We could not take control of the game."
Yet Barcelona still triumphed. Where Madrid were extravagant against Granada, who sit 19th in La Liga, Barca had to search out their advantage by centimeters against Celta.
It came down to the two or three extra centimeters of height that the tall French defender Jeremy Mathieu offers them. Mathieu may be the least celebrated player on Barcelona's regular first-team roster. He is not a first-choice pick for his country, France; he is not a figure sought out by advertisers or interviewers. Until two weeks ago, he was still considered freakishly expensive, at the 24 million euros Barca paid Valencia for him last summer.
What Mathieu has shown he can do, though, is rise highest to get his head to corners and free-kicks. He did so two weeks ago to score the first Barca goal in the 2-1 win against Madrid; he did so yesterday, late in the second half to head the only goal of the match at Celta. That's six points he's been worth, in two games. Mathieu may well turn out the unlikely maestro of the 2014-15 Liga.
