Madrid aims to eliminate title rival
Real Madrid can take another significant step towards retaining its Primera Liga crown this weekend when it hosts fellow high-flyer Villarreal at the Bernabeu.
Real Madrid can take another significant step towards retaining its Primera Liga crown this weekend when it hosts fellow high-flyer Villarreal at the Bernabeu.
Villarreal travels to the capital in third place in the standings, but it is 12 points behind leader Real and a defeat would almost certainly end any faint hopes it might have of winning a first La Liga crown.
With fourth-placed Atletico Madrid seemingly falling by the wayside following last weekend's 2-0 home defeat to Real and fifth-placed Espanyol badly hit by injuries, there appear to be few sides left now who can put pressure on an in-form Real side which has won its last seven league games - six with clean sheets.
Real has also won all nine of its league matches at the Bernabeu, a record that should give it an additional advantage as it still has to play second-placed Barcelona, Villarreal, Espanyol, Valencia and Sevilla at home.
However, Real playmaker Guti warned his team-mates this week that nothing had been decided yet.
"It's still too soon to talk about winning the league because there are many games left," he said.
"The lead we have isn't sufficiently large for us to say that losing the title would be entirely up to us. We are in good form and strong at home, but Barcelona had the same lead over us last year and we ended up winning the championship."
With several of La Liga's leading sides dropping off the pace recently, the title race now looks to be between two teams - Real and arch-rival Barcelona, which goes to Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.
Barca is seven points adrift in second place, but still has won five of its last six Primera Liga matches and is still in the Copa del Rey - unlike Real.
The only match taking place on Saturday sees Sevilla host Osasuna in a battle between two sides who reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals last season but are struggling for success this time around.
On Sunday, a patched-up Espanyol welcomes Real Betis to the Olimpic Lluis Companys stadium.
Espanyol suffered a major blow on Wednesday when captain and leading scorer Raul Tamudo sustained a broken arm in training.
That could keep the Spain international sidelined for two months, and with the likes of Carlos Kameni, Inaki Lafuente, Daniel Jarque, Albert Riera and Ivan De la Pena all possibly missing for the Betis game as well, coach Ernesto Valverde has plenty to ponder.
At the foot of the table, bottom club Levante travels to third-bottom Real Murcia while the other side in the relegation zone, Deportivo La Coruna, hosts seventh-placed Real Valladolid.
Atletico Madrid will hope to end a disappointing week - which has seen it lose to city rival Real in the league and Valencia in the Copa del Rey - on a high when it travels to Real Mallorca, which also lost the first leg of its cup quarter-final in midweek after going down 1-0 to Getafe.
That was Getafe's third competitive win on the trot and it will look to continue that run when it travels to Recreativo Huelva
Elsewhere, Valencia hosts Almeria while new Real Zaragoza coach Javier Irureta faces a tough start to life in the Romareda hot-seat as he takes his side to sixth-placed Racing Santander.