La Liga in focus: Barcelona must restore earlier shine to reclaim title authority

Though their old Atocha home was renowned for being inhospitable to visitors, Real Sociedad’s new Anoeta Stadium comes nowhere near it in terms of atmosphere. At Atocha, the stands were close to the pitch and visitors knew they would receive a strong Basque welcome.

At the Anoeta, the pitch is surrounded by a running track which makes it unpopular with fans and players because the noise from the crowd gets lost. The club want to redevelop the stadium but don't have the finances. Perhaps partly because of this, Real Sociedad are not particularly effective at home. While their form has picked up and recently and seen them rise to ninth in La Liga, their overall home record is not so impressive. Getafe, in 19th, have the same tally of six home wins, five draws and five defeats.

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Yet something strange happens when Barcelona visit Anoeta's odd coloured pitch. They lose. In fact They have lost five and drawn once in their past six visits to San Sebastian.

The run defies logic, for La Real are not one of the strongest teams in Spain. Last season, David Moyes’ side enjoyed a 1-0 victory over Barca, providing the Scot’s high point in Spain. In the return game at Camp Nou, Moyes was satisfied to avoid a hammering: He knew there was a huge gulf in class.

This season, the injury-hit Basques, managed by Eusebio Sacristan, beat Barcelona by the same scoreline as Moyes’s side did to inflict a second consecutive league defeat on Luis Enrique’s side.

Unbeaten in 39 matches until last week, Barca have seen their lead at the top of the table slashed from nine points to three. Atletico Madrid, their opponents in the Uefa Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday at Vicente Calderon, are second. Real Madrid are third. However, although both Madrid clubs are three and four points behind the Catalans respectively, that is effectively four and five because of Barca’s superior head-to-head record.

The league was considered over two weeks ago, but after the weekend results, every Spanish newspaper led with headlines claiming the opposite. It’s a surprise. Atletico’s Diego Simeone has long said that the league is over, Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane said the focus was on winning an 11th European Cup. The nation’s focus was actually on the Champions League this week, with the top three all involved.

Six league games remain. Madrid have the toughest run in, with four games away from home where they least impress. Without a win in three league matches, Barca will need to get back on track on Sunday against a Valencia team they hammered 7-0 when they last came to Camp Nou in January. With that game the penultimate one of the weekend, the Catalans will really know if the league is on.

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But first, the Champions League. Atletico felt aggrieved at the refereeing decisions which went against them last week in the first leg. It was difficult to dispute Fernando Torres’s sending off for two yellow cards, but they were most angered by the failure of the referee to issue a red card to Luis Suarez. Twice the Uruguayan should have seen red. Instead, he stayed on the pitch and scored twice as Barca came from behind to win 2-1. Suarez will likely be booed whenever he touches the ball in the cauldron of the Calderon on Wednesday.

Enrique is under the heaviest scrutiny, especially for his squad rotation, since that defeat in San Sebastian in January 2015. Then he wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with Lionel Messi. It took Xavi to smooth things over. Now, Messi and Neymar are not reaching the spectacular levels they were hitting only a month ago.

Back then, Barca’s sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta lost his job, but the Catalans regrouped and went on to win the treble of league, cup and Champions League. They can still do the same again this season, but only if they stem the losses and reinvigorate players.

Another 1-0 defeat on Wednesday and the best team in the world will be out of Europe.

Fernando Torres the darling of Atletico Madrid again ... but should he stay?

While Luis Suarez is free to play at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday, Fernando Torres won't be on the pitch. Suspended after his red card in the first leg of their Uefa Champions League quarter-final at Camp Nou, Atletico Madrid will miss the veteran striker who is back in form. For so long this season, Torres, 32, was a low-scoring peripheral player whom his one time dressing-room colleague Diego Simeone always spoke well of.

Torres is out of contract in June and there was a clear sense that he will not be getting a new one at Atletico, that he had had the farewell he dreamt of, finally scoring 100 goals for the club he supported as a boy.

See also: Andy Mitten: Barcelona and Atletico Madrid proving great rivals, and great contrasts, for these times

By the turn of the year, Torres was on the bench for Atletico’s first two games. For their next three, he didn’t even make the squad, with Jackson Martinez chosen ahead of him, on the substitutes bench, when Atletico played at Barcelona on January 30.

When Martinez was surprisingly sold to China, Torres came back into the reckoning. He started and scored against Eibar, his 100th La Liga goal, and again in the next match, against Getafe. He started Atletico’s last two games, scoring in both victories. In between, he gave Atletico what could be a crucial away goal at Camp Nou.

Torres is in his best form since he returned to Atletico at the start of 2015. Eight goals in 35 games this season can’t be described as prolific and the pace which saw him picked out as the best young Spanish striker of his generation is no longer the same. That was lost with age and after several injuries in England, but Torres is an intelligent and experienced striker who still loves playing for his club. He works hard and his enthusiasm is clear – too clear at Camp Nou last Wednesday when he rushed into challenges, resulting in two bookings.

The upturn in form means that Atletico would like to offer him a new contract, though they are not going to make him one of their best-paid players. If Torres wants to stay then he can, but the centre-forward is a big name and has had interest from the super rich Chinese Super League, where he would likely get a much better-paid contract.

Torres, who has 110 Spain caps and was the Premier League’s most expensive player when he moved from Liverpool to Chelsea in 2011 for £50 million (Dh261.7m), is already a very wealthy man. Should he stay where he is loved, where he’s played more games than he played for Liverpool, Chelsea and AC Milan? Or does he go for more money and leave Atletico for a foreign club for the second time in his career? Torres is predisposed to stay. “I would love to be the [Juan Carlos] Valeron or [Francesco] Totti of Atleti,” Torres told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.

If Simeone wants him to remain, why not?

Player of the week

Eibar are sinking and didn’t provide much opposition to Real Madrid in their 4-0 defeat last Saturday. Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal was his 30th in the league this season, the sixth season in succession that he has scored 30 or more league goals in Spain. Lionel Messi could match that, but he needs eight in the last six matches.

Game of the week

Barcelona v Valencia in the final game of the weekend. The Catalans have to get back on track at Camp Nou and could even start the game on the same points as Atletico Madrid. Valencia want to avoid another 7-0 hammering. Real Madrid’s trip across the capital to Getafe intrigues, but Getafe have picked up only two points from the last 36 available.

What else?

• Valencia players had a full week to prepare under a new manager for their home game against a Sevilla side without an away League win all season. A Sevilla side who did win away in the Europa League at Athletic Bilbao last Thursday and for whom priorities lie away from La Liga. Unai Emery’s side are concentrating on retaining the Europa League and the Copa del Rey final in May. So while Valencia are poor, even they stood a chance to get a rare win. They managed that, 2-1.

• Spain’s bottom five are now cut off from the rest. It is easy to understand why. None of them scored at the weekend, while Valencia and Real Betis just above them both triumphed, leaving the gap at five points. None of the bottom five have won more than one of their last six matches. Rayo Vallecano, Granada, Sporting Gijon, Getafe and Levante are all struggling and three of them will go down.

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