Barcelona have cut 12 points off LaLiga Santander leaders Atletico Madrid in the last two months after dropping just two points in their last 10 games, compared to the 14 dropped by Diego Simeone‘s side.
Now, Ronald Koeman‘s charges find themselves just one point behind Los Rojiblancos in the LaLiga Santander table, with it seeming as though Barcelona have become the new favourites to go on and win the title. What’s more, on Saturday they will face Real Madrid in the second Clasico of the season at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano.
Atletico have seen their form go through a rough patch, which most recently saw them lose 1-0 away at Sevilla last Sunday, while Barcelona are finding a way to win games, as evidenced by their last-gasp winner against Real Valladolid on Monday night. The Valladolid win was marred in some controversy, though, due to a penalty that wasn’t given against Jordi Alba and a very dubious red card for Oscar Plano in the final 10 minutes when the score was 0-0.
Simeone’s Atletico: 16 points out of 30
In the last 10 league games Los Colchoneros have recorded four wins, four draws and two defeats, which means that they have dropped 14 points in this period.
On the contrary, Barcelona have been a machine domestically in the last couple of months, closing the gap on Atletico by 12 points. They are now just one point behind and the title is in their hands.
The only game that the Blaugrana failed to win in their last 10 came against Cadiz, who scored a stoppage-time penalty after a mistake by Clement Lenglet. They have won the other nine.
“Everything has been the result of hard work,” Lenglet said after the Valladolid victory.
“We’ve worked very hard over the last few months. At the beginning it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to, but now it has.”
On Saturday Barcelona will travel to face Real Madrid, but they will do so in their best form of the season in terms of results.
