Week 33 - Barça lose the plot, Atleti lose Costa

Some things are easy to lose but extremely hard to get back: Your hair as it gets claimed by the passing years. Your cool when the bastard kid behind you on the plane has been kicking the back of your chair for half an hour. If you're Barcelona, possibly your self-belief after a torrid week in which you're dumped out of the Champions League without a whimper and fall further behind in the race for the title. Or if you're Atlético Madrid, your talisman and lead striker - one of the main reasons you're still leading the pack.

'Mono' searching for John Connor

With Costa restored to the starting line-up, the league leaders travelled with a healthy away support across the city for a derby against Getafe. Diego Godín smacked in a header shortly before half-time to give Atleti the lead (I'm still not quite sure what he was doing wandering into the area like that), and Costa spurned a chance from the penalty spot before the most talked-about incident of the match. No, not 'Mono' Burgos in his futuristic Google Glasses on the bench, although he did look funny. A few minutes from time, and with Getafe down to 10 men, Adrián played a ball across the face of goal for Costa who hared after it like a man possessed and slid in to poke the ball home. So single-minded were his attempts to score that he didn't account for the far post and smashed straight into it. No Atlético fan was celebrating this goal. Fears increased for the Brazil Spain striker amid reports that he'd been rushed straight to hospital as a precaution. Nevertheless, manager Simeone has since played down rumours that the striker is set to miss the rest of the season, pointing out that Costa sustained a wound rather than any ligament or muscle damage.
Good news for los Colcherones, then, as they remain with their fate in their own hands. They now have five games remaining, and will lift the title for the first time since 1995-96 if they win four of those.

Conversely, Barcelona seem on the verge of meltdown. In a week where they were humbled by an Atleti side minus the twin threats of Diego Costa and Arda Turan, a trip to relegation-haunted Granada must have seemed a nice and relatively easy way to try and get back in the swing of things. Sadly for the reigning Liga champions, this was to be the latest in a series of 'bad days at the office' domestically this season. Yet again Barça couldn't capitalise on their astronomical possession, leaving Granada in their natty kit to celebrate at the final whistle following a 1-0 win after Yacine Brahimi steered the ball past buffoon/goalkeeper hybrid Pinto just after the quarter hour mark.
Pressure is growing on both manager Martino and the players in general. The team coach was received back to Camp Nou at 2:30 in the morning by irate fans hurling insults at the players within, among the cries that they were 'useless' and brought 'shame' to the fanbase. Pinto, Neymar and Dani Alves were singled out for particular insults as they made their way to their cars. Messi again went missing in the match, and it is not

Messi in his now-customary pose

hard to draw a line between the downturn in form of the perennial world footballer of the year and his team. Andoni Zubizarreta, the Barcelona sporting director and no doubt a man who still has nightmares of Garba Lawal, is not among those drawing such a line, instead insisting on TV3 that he doesn't doubt Messi for even 'half a second'.
As for Tata Martino, it would seem the Camp Nou hierarchy have finally lost patience, and football hipster extraordinaire Jürgen Norbert Klopp (whose Dortmund side battered Bayern Münich 3-0 on the weekend) is rumoured to be favourite to replace him at the helm. The word about the place is that even securing the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid on Wednesday will not prove enough to keep him in a job.

That final may take on the appearance of a 'B Team' match-up though, owing to the sheer number of players set to miss out through injury. The players who will definitely miss out are; CR7, Marcelo, Arbeloa and Jesé for Real and Valdés, Piqué and Bartra for Barcelona, although the veteran Puyol has volunteered if he can put himself back together in time. Although Sami Khedira has returned to training, he is also expected to miss out for los Blancos as is Sergio Ramos, pending a late fitness test.

Di María celebrates the opener

Without their main threat, Real still made light work of Almería on Saturday night. Ángel di María stepped into Ronaldo's shoes and drove the team forward with guile and creativity, scoring the opening goal on the half hour. This was added to by Bale and Isco early in the second half and Álvaro Morata with just over five minutes left. The weekend's assorted results leave Atlético Madrid top of the pile on 82 points, with Real leapfrogging Barcelona into 2nd place, the eternal rivals on 79 and 78 points respectively.

The weekend's biggest game with an impact on both the European and relegation places was a massive Seville derby between Real Betis and Sevilla at Estadio Benito Villaramín. The hosts were rock bottom of the division and would remain there no matter the result against their fiercest rivals, but local pride was at stake. At the other end of the classifications, Sevilla were in a battle for the last Champions League spot behind the top three. However, in such strongly-contested derbies, no matter where in the world, the form book always goes out the window. Unfortunately for neutral fans, and especially los Heliopolitanos, the central figure in the game was Velasco Carballo - the referee. Right on the half hour Juan Carlos performed an absolutely brilliant tackle on Carlos the bus conductor Bacca in the Betis area. Unbelievably, the man in the middle then pointed to the spot. Kévin Gameiro dutifully stepped up and put Seville 1-0 up. He later

Betis defeated and deflated

doubled his tally but the damage had already been done by Betis unjustly losing a player. The result leaves los Verdiblancos floundering a full 10 points off Valladolid in 17th while their cross-town rivals keep the pressure on Athletic Bilbao in 4th. The Basques host Málaga at the new San Mamés on Monday night. The Andalucians have levelled out in mid table over recent weeks, but are still within sight of the relegation zone and so would like a couple more victories under their belt before the end of the season.

Down in the Segunda División, the race to clamber up into the Primera Liga is reaching its peak. Deportivo de La Coruña took a massive step towards re-establishing themselves as a top-flight club with a 2-0 victory over Recreativo de Huelva with goals from Juan Carlos and Diego Ifrán. They are now on 60 points, five ahead of Eibar in the second automatic promotion spot, and six ahead of Las Palmas. Recre remain a further three points back in fourth. Behind those, the difference between Real Murcia (50) in seventh and Real Jaén (40) in 22nd is only a scarcely-believable 10 points. Girona and Alavés are slightly further adrift, on 37 and 35 points respectively. Barcelona B and Real Madrid Castilla find themselves is vastly different positions, those from la Masia up in 5th on 51 points (albeit they cannot be promoted, obviously) and Castilla on equal points with Jaén in the relegation zone.