Real Madrid regained their top spot in the La Liga table with a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid. It was not easy at all, as you would not expect it to be against Diego Simeone’s side at the Metropolitano. Los Blancos managed to go into the break with a 2-0 lead but the home side did get one back in the second half and did knock on the door for the equaliser on several occasions but could not manage to open it.
As a result, three points and an away win against Atletico Madrid later, Real Madrid find themselves sitting at first, two points ahead of Barcelona.
Now, to give credit where credit is due, Barcelona have been turning on the heat in recent weeks as well, and have gone top of the table themselves on a couple of occasions, even though they had played a game more than Real Madrid at that point. But this could be a close title race nonetheless.
As reported by Marca, Carlo Ancelotti said regarding the matter:
"“Barcelona is doing very well, so are we, Atlético have lost to us. This season is very strange, we don’t know what could happen after the World Cup, what happened to Atlético could happen to us. It’s a more competitive league.”"
Real Madrid: Ancelotti comments on Barcelona’s title challenge
That is a very good point raised by Ancelotti and one that not many people seem to be giving enough importance to.
This time around there is a World Cup in the middle of the season and that could end up having a huge impact on things. There could be major injuries at the tournament, there could be fatigue issues after it and many players could just burn out mentally after playing so much high stakes football.
Thus, the second portion of this season is going to be very, very interesting and a lot of twists and turns are left in the season. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona seem to be very close at the moment in terms of their La Liga chances. That might not be the case in a few months’ time though.