The Week in Real Madrid: La Liga hoodoo continues as title slips away once more

Zinedine Zidane's men couldn't lift La Liga in the end, even if they deserve credit for the way they mustered their strength to push Barcelona to the wire under the Frenchman, writes Tim Stannard.

The week in five words

Another league title fight lost

What went well

About 14 minutes went well. The 14 minutes when Real Madrid were theoretical league champions with the Bernabéu outfit 1-0 up at Deportivo and Barcelona still trying to grind down Granada.

But then Luis Suárez popped up with the first of three goals to see reality biting Madrid on the bum in what turned out to be a very drama-free conclusion to the league title race, compared to what was expected a week before, when three teams were going all guns blazing for the gong.

Aside from that near quarter-of-hour of potential glory, it is slim pickings from the week aside from the fact that at least Madrid were in a position to fail to win La Primera on the final day, as opposed to giving up the fight sometime in March.


A small pat on the pack from Cristiano Ronaldo is probably deserved though, after his brace saw the footballer reaching a tally of over 50 goals for Madrid in the past six seasons. The current total stands at 51 strikes with one match left to take care of in Milan.

What didn’t 

Deportivo La Coruna 0 Real Madrid 2: Ronaldo double not enough to steal La Liga title

It is less about the week and more about the season, but Madrid failed to win La Liga once again, which is the bread and butter of the club - or rather than toast and tomato, to convert it into more Iberian tastes.

Whilst the talk in AS was of the Madrid 'dying on their feet’ against Deportivo, the league title victory for Barcelona sees Madrid with just the single Primera win in the past eight years, the same as Atlético Madrid, who have spent slightly less.

However, it is true that a Champions League win will quickly help cleanse that record a touch, but a defeat to Atlético Madrid in Milan will see the season ending trophy-less and with the possibility of fellow Spanish sides, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid and Sevilla all winning trinkets.

Although the chances were slim of Ronaldo winning the Pichichi, a treble for Luis Suárez to better CR7’s brace meant that the chances of a late day surge were eliminated fairly quickly, meaning that the Portuguese's portal podium brought to La Riazor went unused.
image: http://images.cdn.fourfourtwo.com/sites/fourfourtwo.com/files/styles/inline-image/public/pa-26329397.jpg?itok=dp2mcbpC

'Very proud' Zidane insists Madrid did all they could

Quote of the week

“How am I doing? Didn’t you watch the game?” - an incredulous Ronaldo modestly responds to some media enquiries as to his general state of being after being subbed at half-time during the Deportivo win.

Marcelo blames Madrid failure on Benitez era

Winner

It’s time to give Zinedine Zidane a little love. Although Tomás Roncero was being more than a little mischievous in AS with the claim that the French manager 'won La Liga', Zizou did pick up four more points that Luis Enrique’s Barcelona in the 20 matches that Zidane was in charge, after gathering up the reigns from the now very forgotten Rafa Benítez.

The rookie in charge of Madrid took a lot of learnings from Carlo Ancelotti’s easy going approach and also added a bit of his own strong, stubborn personality in not pulling any punches. The trick undertaken by Zidane was to keep the superstars happy, but restore balance to the team by casting the shirt-selling James Rodríguez onto the bench and replacing the Colombian with the more defensively-minded Casemiro.

Loser 

Florentino Pérez probably still feels that Madrid’s recent lack of success in the past seven years during his Second Coming, is all someone else’s fault: failing players, failing managers, failing referees not stopping Barcelona enough, failing weather.

But eventually, the euro has to fall that this was a league title that could well have been won had Carlo Ancelotti been in charge and the team had a season of stability rather than Sergio Ramos in-or-out, David de Gea in-or-out, Cristiano in-or-out, Rafa Benitez in-or-out and so on and so on.


But at least Madrid won something that matters a great deal to Pérez - the club is the most valuable in the world, according to Forbes. So that’s alright then.