Ronaldo, Messi, Griezmann, Bale, Suarez are just a few of the superstar players who light up Spain's La Liga every week. It jostles with the Premier League for the billing of best football division on the planet and when you think of elite clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid always come to mind before Man. United, City or Chelsea pop into your head. It's no coincidence that six of the Champions League final spots of the last three years have been filled by Spanish teams. This season La Liga is as interesting and eye catching as ever and as it nears the halfway stage, here's a look at how the main contenders are shaping up…
The only unbeaten team in La Liga with 11 wins and four draws from the first 15 games, Real Madrid are having their best domestic campaign for many years. Their six-point lead over Barca is an absolute luxury. Highlights so far include Ronaldo's hat-trick in a 3-0 away win at Atletico Madrid, Sergio Ramos' late leveller in 'El Clasico' at Barcelona and scoring 15 goals in total during big wins over Osasuna, Betis and Alaves. Zinedine Zidane's team now have an incredible resilience and when you throw in talented stars like Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema you can see why 888sport have them as firm favourites to pick up their first league trophy since 2012. And all this without the injured Gareth Bale, who should return around March.
In only their third La Liga game of the season, champions Barcelona suffered a shock home defeat to Alaves. It set the tone for an up and down season so far that has also seen them lose to Celta Vigo and drop points to Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Sociedad and Real Madrid. In comparison after 15 games last season Barcelona were five points ahead of Real at the top of the league. Messi, Neymar and Suarez are still a frightening attacking threesome with 25 league goals between them and Barca have kept six clean sheets in the league to Real's four, but realistically they can't afford to lose any games at the Nou Camp now if they are to close the gap on Real at the top.
Sevilla finished seventh in La Liga last season but in 2016-17 they are nestled nicely in third place after 15 games, between Barcelona and Villarreal. Jorge Sampaoli's team have a rather shaky defence which let in four in a crazy 6-4 win over Espanyol and have yet to register back to back clean sheets. A win over Atletico Madrid in October gave them the confidence that they can mix it with the big boys and if they can take their Champions League form, where they lost just once in the group stage, into the league they have a fighting chance of finishing in the top four. Forward Wissam Ben Yedder has settled in well since joining in the summer and has four league goals from seven starts.
The Yellow Submarine are lurking very nicely in fourth place so far this season, with 26 points from 15 games. That's actually slightly worse than at the same stage in 2015-16, when they had 27 points in the bag. They are built around the league's best defence, boasting talent like Ruiz, Musacchio, Mario and Costa, which has seen just ten goals go in. A recent 3-0 win over Atleti and 1-1 draw at Real Madrid showed how dogged and clinical they can be. Scoring goals has been a bit of a problem for Villarreal, though, and Italian striker Nicola Sansone is the top scorer with five from 15 starts.
If only Atletico could take their Champions League results and form into La Liga. In Europe they won their first five games in a row, sweeping Bayern Munich and PSV aside, and only lost the final dead rubber group game because top spot was already assured. Their legendary defence is still pretty tight, lead by the masterful Diego Godin, but 3-0 reverses to Villarreal and city rivals Real take the shine off big wins over Granada, Sporting Gijon and Celta Vigo. Manager Diego Simeone knows he has a world-class star in attack in Antoine Griezmann but after the Frenchman's initial six goals in the opening five La Liga games he failed to find the net in the following eight. Still, Atleti have enough power and skill in their team to force their way back into the Champions League places and higher than their current sixth-placed spot.
