FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, in a ‘spicy’ fight for the leadership of La Liga in Spain after winning on date 18

The first two in La Liga, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, settled their matches of matchday 18 with victory and are maintaining their pulse for the title in the Spanish championship, which for the moment the Catalans lead with a three-point advantage.

Barcelona did the bare minimum to defeat Getafe (16th) 1-0 at the Camp Nou, with a solitary goal by Pedri González in the first half (35), but enough to put all the pressure on Real Madrid, who later visited the always complicated San Mamés stadium.

But with a new lesson in goalscoring efficiency, the white team took Bilbao’s three points with a 2-0 win, scored by the Frenchman Karim Benzema (25) and the German Toni Kroos (90).

After these results, Barcelona has 44 points, compared to 41 for Real Madrid. Real Sociedad is third with 38 units and Atlético de Madrid closes the Champions League, distanced by 13 points from the leader and by 7 from the podium.

After Real Madrid’s poor results in recent weeks, coach Carlo Ancelotti decided to leave two regular starters on the bench, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, to play in the middle with Camavinga, Ceballos and Valverde, with Marco Asensio accompanying in attack to Benzema and Vinicius.

But as usual in their San Mamés stadium, Athletic began by putting a lot of pressure on Real Madrid and having the first chances to score: the first from a header by Aitor Paredes that Thibaut Courtois saved with a great save (11) and the second in a shot by Nico Williams that grazed the base of the left post of the goal defended by the Belgian (17).

But once again, Real Madrid showed effectiveness by scoring the first goal of the game, in a shot from Benzema’s half-turn, the ninth in La Liga this season for the current Ballon d’Or winner (24).

Athletic kept pressing in search of an equalizer, especially in the second half, but Real Madrid defended well and the Basque team hardly worried Courtois.

The Madrid team had their first great opportunity to seal the game in the 65th minute, in a great triangulation between Valverde, Benzema and Asensio, which the Spanish international ended with a shot that was too crossed.

Nico Williams also crossed his shot a lot, in the clearest occasion to tie for the people of Bilbao, in an error by the Whites’ defense, which left the young winger of La Roja unmarked (69).

The changes, especially with the entry of veterans Ander Herrera and Iker Muniain, gave Athletic a second wind, which had a phase midway through the second half in which they stalked the Madrid goal and even scored, but Iñaki’s goal Williams was ruled offside (77).

Real Madrid knew how to weather the storm and sentenced on the horn with a very tight shot from the edge of Kroos (90).

decisive Pedro

“It is evident that the team once again defended well; compact, solid”, highlighted Ancelotti after the game. “How the game started with the advantage, we needed to defend and we did it well. We have not given away and in the end we have won ”, he added.

At the Camp Nou, without putting on a brilliant game, Barcelona took control of the game and took advantage of a mistake in the rival’s ball coming out to open the scoring with a cross from the left by the Brazilian Raphinha who finished off the net, in center forward position, Pedri (35).

But Getafe had a great chance to take a positive result from their visit to Barcelona. Only his center forward, Borja Mayoral, had four very clear chances to score (two in each period), but he missed and left the Barça temple empty-handed.

“We have not known how to attack well and in general we have been quite thick, we have lacked aggressiveness and know how to attack spaces better, we have won without playing well”, admitted the Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández.

In the other results on Sunday, Villarreal (5th, tied on points with Atlético) defeated Girona (16th) 1-0 thanks to a penalty scored by Dani Parejo at the end of the game and adds three points that allows him to continue in the fight for the Champions League.

Osasuna (7th with 28 points) drew a draw on their visit to bottom club Elche, which is still without victory after 18 days of the championship. (D)