Barcelona’s form: Back on Track?
Is Barça back on track? The last La Liga results were inspiring, but the Blaugrana were thrashed at home against Bayern Munich in the midweek.
Xavi seems to be trying to help his team psychologically. Yesterday he said that he wanted to show Real Madrid that they are chasing them.
The last two teams that Barça defeated in La Liga – Bilbao and Valencia – are among the most traditional teams in Spain.
It’s also true that by the time the game between them and Bayern started, their fate in Europe was sealed with a ‘qualification’ to Europa League.
The memory of the Eintracht Frankfurt fiasco is still alive and Barça definitely doesn’t feel like Europa League is their place. So, to analyse their current situation, it’s probably wise to exclude the FC Bayern loss at home in the midweek.
Real Madrid X Barcelona: their current situation
Real Madrid seems to be more solid. Last season they may have been almost out of the UEFA Champions League on numerous occasions, but there’s a solid base in Madrid: the first team is strong, and the squad depth is really impressive.
Real Madrid has some young blood that is performing incredibly well. Vini Jr. was the big of the last UCL final, Valverde and Rodrygo are performing well, and the experienced guys like Kroos, Modric, and Benzema are something else.
After the departure of Messi, Barça intensified a process of renewal and a new chapter in their history which had already started with the first departures of the MSN trio.
Nevertheless, witnessing the fans of Real Madrid ‘asking’ for Xavi to stay and wishing them good luck in Europa League surely was a hard pill to swallow.
However, Barça seems to be focusing on the fact that it’s their place to fight for the La Liga title anyways.
Real Madrid has great young blood doing well, but the experienced guys are important, and if Los Blancos go far in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase, then they will have to juggle and keep up with Barça’s pace to lift the domestic season trophy.
La Liga Outright scenario
Before the last El Clásico, Barça was the favourite to win the ongoing season. On that occasion, the odds of Real Madrid were 2.1 on average, while the Catalans had odds of 1.80. Atletico Madrid was the third most likely team to win in the eyes of the market with odds of 21.0 on average.
Right now, however, the odds of the Madridistas are 1.70 and the Blaugrana, 2.10. Atlético’s form worsened in the eyes of the market and their current odds now are 34.0+ on average.
Real Madrid seemed more efficiency and confident in the last Clásico. But the games between the 2 Spanish giants are just 2 out of 38, and the rest of the games in La Liga are just as important.
In spite of the horrid European form and the bad loss against Real Madrid recently, Barça seems to be solid after the victories against Bilbao and Valencia.
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