5 Key Stats from La Liga week 24

Lionel Messi

Still just goal difference separates Spain’s top three after a goal-laden weekend for Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

The new San Mames witnessed a home defeat in La Liga for the first time, while Celta Vigo’s impressive 2-0 win over Villarreal was briefly held up after tear gas engulfed the pitch at El Madrigal.

At the bottom the colista slipped further into trouble as the bottom three, like the top three, stayed as it was.

Here’s what went down in jornada 24 in Spain.

Barcelona bash in six to stay top

It was relentless. Attack after attack swarmed forward, yet still it remained 1-0. Adriano scored inside 120 seconds and then Barcelona swarmed towards to the Rayo Vallecano goal in the same way the rain lashed down in Seville last weekend.

It took a while for the second goal to come, but, once it did, that was that.

Messi scored it with a fantastic chip (worth checking on Youtube), before he later added the fifth in a 6-0 win, taking him level with Raul in third place in La Liga’s all time top scorers on 228 goals.

Alexis Sanchez, Pedro and Neymar—another Youtube worthy effort on his return from injury—completed the scoring as Barca laid into the Rayo goal with 21 attempts across the match.

Gerardo Martino was certainly happy to see his side keep their place at the top of the table. “We are in the best possible shape” he said ahead of Tuesday’s game with Manchester City.

Real and Atletico remain on their heels

Anything Barca can do, Real Madrid and Atletico will attempt to do to.

Adriano’s goal came after two minutes, and it took Atleti and Real just three and five minutes respectively to open the scoring during their wins to keep the three sides grid locked at the top on 60 points.

Diego Simeone’s men ended their crisis—three defeats in a week—by putting three goals past Real Valladolid. Raul Garcia and Diego Costa scored inside four minuteand Diego Godin added the third in the second period.

Jese Rodriguez was once again writing headlines for the white half of Madrid.

The young striker opened the scoring against Getafe amid growing calls for him to feature in Spain’s World Cup squad. Karim Benzema and Luka Modric, two players inform, completed the 3 – 0 win.

Carlo Ancelotti insisted afterwards that he is a “coach not an administrator” and Jese will not fall foul of Gareth Bale due to the Welshman’s price tag—the team is picked on merit.

Athletic toppled at San Mames for first time

History was made on Sunday night as the winning side at the new San Mames was the away team for the first time in La Liga since Athletic Bilbao moved into their shiny new stadium last year.

Ernesto Valverde’s men have already toppled Barcelona there and drawn with Real Madrid, yet they came unstuck against an Espanyol side who are developing a knack for performing rather well when the games with the ‘better’ sides roll around.

Few could argue with the result either.

Sergio Garcia took his tally to the season to 10 with another impressive performance as the visitors ran up more shots on goal than their hosts—this wasn’t a hit and run.

Espanyol were also the first team to beat Atletico Madrid this season and have only conceded four goals in five games against the top three. They move into a four-way tie for seventh in the table, while Athletic missed the chance to strengthen their grip on fourth spot.

Diego Alves is a penalty saving king

If you’re picking a goalkeeper for a penalty shoot out, I urge you to give serious consideration to Valencia’s Diego Alves.

The Brazilian is the only man to have saved penalty kicks from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi—he’s also saved one from Diego Costa.

Diego Alves of Valencia

On Sunday night at the Sanchez Pizjuan, Sevilla got a penalty with the score at 0-0. Up stepped Ivan Rakitic for his shot from 12-yards and, given the introduction to this slide, you probably know what happened next.

Alves saved it.

Up the other end Valencia managed to leave Seville with a draw despite not having taken a single shot on target. Mind you, the home side only managed two and one of those was Rakitic’s penalty.

Relegation round up as Betis sink a little deeper

Speaking to Canal Plus after Real Betis had lost at Granada Sunday lunchtime, Ruben Castro could not have looked any grumpier if Geoff Shreeves had just given him some bad news—and he had good reason.

Betis’ bouncing fans may given off good vibes at Los Carmenes, but the truth is the 1-0 defeat leaves them 10 points from safety with just 14 games to play.

The even harsher truth is that nothing about their performance inspired any belief that they can at least make a good fist out of their fight for survival.

It was an important win for Granada though, who move six clear of a bottom three which also includes Rayo and Valladolid. Elche and Osasuna shared a point, Almeria were beaten by Levante and Malaga, who play Real Sociedad tonight, are now the team immediately above the trap door.