With respect to Atletico Madrid, who won the Spanish league title two years ago and who are now second in the league table, Real and Barca are habitually the two most powerful clubs in Spain destined to battle for the BBVA Primera Liga title every year.
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The coach said that star striker Lionel Messi will play without any problems, despite having ankle issues in the last game.
Defender Marc Bartra acknowledged that the win over Depor was much needed and was thrilled to see the club’s MSN strikeforce of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Suarez all find the target after a hard spell.
His nemesis at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, has scored 47 goals already this season, eight more than Messi, and as a team this season Real have scored 101 goals, already!
The three-time World Player of the Year has been an ever-present for Madrid in La Liga this season, but is unlikely to be risked just three days before Real travel to Manchester City for the first leg of their semi-final. Luis Suarez was on target four times against Deportivo and this week enters the fray looking for his 31 goal of the season.
“Being top scorer wasn’t my objective and now we have three games left, and with the help of my team mates, if I can do it I’ll welcome it but the priority for the team is the league”, said Suarez.
Deportivo continued to commit players forward late on and Fajr tried his luck on a couple of occasions from distance, but the night belonged to Barcelona, who sent out a message ahead of the title run-in.
Bartra then bagged the goal of the game with Barca’ seventh, bursting from deep into the Deportivo area before producing a fine finish.
“I am very happy with the whole squad, I have no complaints”. “We will keep trying to reach our objectives”. “We know Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid are the two toughest rivals in the league. We are just behind, waiting for them to slip up”.
“We are human, we aren’t machines and we can all commit errors or have a bad game”, Suarez told Spanish TV station Movistar+. “We will continue with what we have been doing recently, nothing has changed”.
At the opposite end of the table, Sporting Gijon hauled themselves out of the bottom three as Isma Lopez’s stoppage-time goal sealed a 2-1 victory over Sevilla.
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“We made a great effort”, Simeone said. After struggling in recent weeks, Barcelona were back to their brilliant best and opened the scoring in the 11th minute. “Although, La Liga and the Copa (del Rey) still remain and to win both of these in one season would still make it a brilliant season”.
