Barcelona strongly fancied to make it three-in-a-row in La Liga
With half the season completed, there is no separation between Barcelona and Real Madrid at the top of La Liga. The two teams have each collected 40 points after 19 games, setting up the prospect of a thrilling title battle during the second half of the campaign.
Barcelona are favorites with BetEasy to win La Liga for a third successive year, but Madrid will be going
all out to knock them off their perch.
Read on as we look at this season’s title race and assess Barcelona’s chances of lifting the trophy once again.
Barça are worthy favorites to win La Liga
With Lionel Messi still at the peak of his powers, Barça will rightly believe they can fend off their challengers this season.
Their attack remains the most potent force in Spanish football, with 49 goals in 19 matches highlighting their undoubted prowess.
Messi (15) and Luis Suárez (14) have scored over half the tally between them, outshining Antoine Griezmann (8), who has struggled to find his best form. That said, it should be noted that Griezmann’s goal and assist output at this point this season is comparable to last season at Atlético Madrid.
Ansu Fati’s emergence has been an added bonus and Barca’s latest rising star can be expected to keep improving over the coming months.
Barça has not been as solid as they would have liked defensively, but they are worthy favorites to win La Liga once again.
Real Madrid unconvincing under Zidane
Madrid has lost just once this season, but seven draws highlights that they have yet to consistently hit the right note under Zinedane Zidane.
The Madrid boss has certainly tightened things up defensively, with their 12 goals conceded the joint best in La Liga at the halfway mark.
However, that tally has come at the expense of some of their attacking flair – an issue that Zidane is yet to find the answer to.
Much of the scoring load has fallen on the shoulders of Karim Benzema and it is unlikely that he will be able to carry the burden throughout the campaign.
With Eden Hazard failing to deliver since his big-money move from Chelsea, Zidane’s team could find it difficult to keep pace with Barça over the coming months.
Atlético still best of the rest
Atlético Madrid are currently third in the standings, five points behind the big two after losing just twice this season.
They are level on points with Sevilla, but appear as the more likely team from that pair to offer any sort of challenge to Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Despite losing many key players, Atlético remain a typical Diego Simeone team – dogged in defense and unspectacular in attack… with their Spanish Super Cup match against Barcelona being an outlier.
Alvaro Morata is their leading scorer in the league with nine goals and if they could add another forward during that would improve their title chances.
They have been overly reliant at times on goalkeeper Jan Oblak, but his consistently fantastic form gives them a solid base to work from and they could still prove troublesome this season.
Prediction: Barça’s additional attacking flair makes them a banker bet to win La Liga once again. Madrid should finish second, although Atlético could pip them if they can improve their goals output.
