Messi leads best Barcelona display of season; Benzema returns to top form
Messi leads best Barcelona display of season; Benzema returns to top form
1. Messi answers the Luis Enrique question
The big question around the Camp Nou on Saturday evening was how Barcelona would react to manager Luis Enrique confirming his departure this summer, and the answer was pretty simple: by performing better and blowing Celta Vigo away 5-0. Messi, the team's talisman, led Barca to the home victory, which was their best match of the season.
Barca hit the post twice before Messi opened the scoring on 24 minutes, turning deep in the Celta half, dodging past a couple of tackles and curling an unstoppable low shot into the net from 20 yards out. It was soon 2-0, as Neymar invented a sumptuous lobbed finish from Messi's assist. From there it was only a matter of how many, with Ivan Rakitic, Samuel Umtiti and Messi again (another super solo goal) on the scoresheet by the end.
The Argentina No. 10 was the star and leads the European Golden Shoe race with 23 goals already this season, having upped his rate considerably in recent weeks. Just as important was a much better all-round team performance, with Sergio Busquets the most obviously improved.
It still seems unlikely that Messi can inspire Barca to turn around their 4-0 Champions League first-leg deficit against Paris Saint-Germain in Wednesday's second leg, but if he keeps up this form, they look narrow favourites to send Enrique off with his third La Liga trophy in three seasons at the club.
Benzema's 350th game for Real Madrid was one of his best -- and most well-timed, too -- since fellow Galacticos Gareth Bale (suspended) and Cristiano Ronaldo (rested) were missing for Saturday's trip to Eibar.
Madrid travelled to the small Basque town under pressure after dodgy recent form. There was no stress, though, as Benzema scored two quick goals, assisted James Rodriguez's third, and was involved in Marco Asensio's fourth to fire Los Blancos' 4-1 win -- their best performance in months.
The all-round contribution of each of the three attackers showed again that manager Zinedine Zidane's side looked more compact without all of their BBC stars up front. Madrid also won without much assistance from usual backups Isco and Alvaro Morata, although club captain Sergio Ramos felt the need to deny that anyone in the squad had questioned the commitment of the apparently unsettled young Spain internationals to the Real Madrid cause.
Everyone knows that Zidane will return Bale and Ronaldo to the starting XI for Tuesday's Champions League game at Napoli, but the "JAB" did the business at Ipurua on Saturday.
Manager Diego Simeone's 200th La Liga game in charge of Atletico Madrid brought one of the most comfortable victories, with Antoine Griezmann's low early strike, Kevin Gameiro's deflected 20-yarder and Griezmann's late poacher's effort enough to see off Valencia 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.
When Simeone arrived in December 2011, Valencia were clearly Spain's third-best team, but a lot has changed since then. Los Che have had 10 coaches in five years (counting serial caretaker Voro just once) and have slumped down and down while Atletico rose close to the top and stayed there.
Voro's current team are capable of raising themselves occasionally, as shown in their 2-1 win over Madrid 10 days ago. After that game, some around Mestalla spoke about a possible late charge for European qualification, but their pretty limp performance in their last visit to the Estadio Vicente Calderon showed that idea to be more than optimistic.
Simeone said Saturday that this was the most difficult of his seasons in charge of Atletico, adding that this would make success at the end even sweeter. In La Liga terms, this now looks like holding off the challenge of Real Sociedad for the fourth spot, as Sevilla -- who play at Alaves on Monday -- remain well out of sight in third.
Last summer, Granada's new Chinese owners and their Catalan advisers gambled big on the loan market. Thirteen different footballers arrived on season-long deals from 12 different clubs around Europe. On Saturday, two players the Andalusians let go to make room in the squad pushed them much closer to relegation in their 1-0 defeat at Leganes.
Lucas Alcaraz's Granada side clearly went to fellow strugglers Leganes aiming to get a point and were just seven minutes from achieving that objective, but then the home side put together a well-worked counterattack, and substitute Darwin Machis knocked home the game's only goal.
That was the same Machis who Granada loaned to Leganes for this season, meaning the Venezuela international was one of the few players on the Butarque pitch actually owned by Granada. Another was midfielder Ruben Perez, also borrowed by Leganes for the year, who had a tidy match in the centre of the park.
Leganes managed to avoid "fear clauses" in the deals for Machis and Perez, meaning Granada were not protected from their own players coming back to haunt them. Alcaraz was understandably frustrated when asked about the irony afterward.
"I don't write the contracts," the veteran coach said through gritted teeth. "You can always read these clauses two ways. You can call them 'fear clauses,' but if you do not put them, you can end up looking stupid."
Quite.
5. Mel a boost for Depor
The weekend's other relegation six-pointer took place Sunday morning, as Deportivo La Coruna ended an excellent week with a 1-0 win at Sporting Gijon.
Depor had lost four on the trot when previous coach Gaizka Garitano was fired last weekend, but they got a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid in Pepe Mel's first game in charge on Thursday. And Pedro Mosquera's header at a corner, poorly defended by Sporting, was enough to give Depor their first win since December. The three points also meant a nice four-point cushion over the drop zone.
Sporting seemed to have turned a corner when Rubi replaced Abelardo Fernandez as coach in January, but gloom has returned to El Molinon after just one point from their last four games. They are now stuck in 19th place, which counts as a warning for Depor, as honeymoon periods can end quite quickly.
Dermot Corrigan is a Madrid-based football writer who covers La Liga and the Spain national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @dermotmcorrigan
Griezmann, Gameiro flourish in tandem as Atleti dominate from start to finish
It was a dominant display from start to finish by Los Colchoneros, who were under pressure given results earlier this weekend. Two wonderful Antoine Griezmann goals sandwiched a Kevin Gameiro strike and truth be told the margin of victory flattered the visitors, who were made to look very ordinary throughout. ,.,.,.2
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