Can top dogs Real Madrid carry momentum to another title?
March 16th, 2025by Krishz Bhatt
After a shaky start to the current league campaign, Spanish giants and reigning European Champions Real Madrid have returned to the summit of the La Liga.While there are those who have attributed their current league position to luck, I would strongly disagree. The league table never lies and usually, it is the best team who stay on top of the rest of the pile.
The Los Blancos had defeated the Catalans in a one sided match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium 3-1 on October 25. A combination of results the following week (a 0-4 away win at Granada coupled with Barcelona's loss at home to Luis Enrique's former charges, Celta Vigo) saw Real rise to the top of the La Liga table.
Their detractors will be saying that their win against Barcelona was a fluke and that Lionel Messi could have buried the game in the first half itself. Well, guess what, it did not happen.
The multiple Ballon d'Or winner fluffed his lines and was a helpless onlooker as the superior team on the evening clearly outplayed them on all departments. The power and pace with which Real played that night had been too much to handle for the opposition on the night.
The match had been played without incident as well, which clearly points to the fact that Real do not consider the enemy superior to them anymore. That had not been the case when Jose Mourinho was the coach while Pep Guardiola had been overseeing a period of unprecedented success at Barca.
It had been pretty clear that the royal whites were playing catchup at the time. Else, Mourinho's ego would not have been hurt as much and relations between the two sides would not have hit a rock bottom.
Mourinho is a man who could not accept the fact that his team were second best and he knew that he could not do anything to change this. Thus, he stoked the animosity which has always otherwise existed between the two sides and this ultimately resulted in his departure from the club.
It now appears that the tables have turned and it is the Catalans who are now having to play catch-up. The side from the capital are clearly on the ascendancy while the other team are struggling to stay close to their traditional rivals.
All that it took for this sea change in was a successful Champions League campaign under Carlo Ancelotti last season.
What followed the realisation of the Decima was yet another extremely active transfer season, as Florentino Perez splashed the cash on the likes of Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez.
The board had their hands forced by the UEFA financial fair play rules in the sale of Angel Di
