La Liga Table 2016-17: Updated standings after Madrid derby

Here’s the full La Liga table after game-week ending April the 5th, 2017:

#	Team Name	Games	Points
1	Real Madrid	30	72
2	Barcelona	30	69
3	Atletico Madrid	31	62
4	Sevilla	30	58
5	Villareal	30	51
6	Athletic Bilbao	30	50
7	Real Sociedad	30	49
8	Eibar*	29	44
9	Espanyol	30	43
10	Celta Vigo*	28	41
11	Alaves	30	40
12	Las Palmas**	29	35
13	Valencia**	29	33
14	Real Betis	30	31
15	Malaga	30	30
16	Deportivo La Coruna	30	28
17	Leganes	30	27
18	Sporting Gijon	30	22
19	Granada	30	20
20	Osasuna	30	14

*Eibar play Las Palmas later today

** Valencia play Celta Vigo two hours after that

Both games have the potential to make a considerable impact on the middle of the table.

The top 2: Real Madrid and Barcelona

Real Madrid 1 – 1 Atletico Madrid

Malaga vs Barcelona

Real Madrid traveled the short distance to Estadio Municipal de Butarque, fielded what was essentially a second string side – resting all of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos – and ran out comfortable 4-2 winners despite a feisty fight back from the unfancied home team. The front triumvirate of Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez, and Alvaro Morata were exceptional and showed that they deserved more game time than they were getting.

Meanwhile, Barcelona’s holy trinity of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar jr. had their best (combined) game of the season as they toyed with a despondent Sevilla en-route to a 3-0 evisceration that in all honesty could have ended even more embarrassingly for the Andalusians. Sevilla looked a shadow of the side that had Barcelona on the ropes in November in the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan... and despite showing glimpses of how good they can be, this game further served the highlight the inexplicable rut they find themselves in.

Upcoming fixtures:

x) Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid - Saturday 8^th April (7.45 PM IST). They follow that with a trip to bottom-feeders Sporting Gijon.

x) Malaga vs Barcelona – Saturday 8^th April (12.15 AM IST, 9^th early morning). They then entertain the perma-banana-peel that is Real Sociedad.

Read, Also: Leganes 2 – 4 Real Madrid, Talking Points

The next 2: Atletico Madrid vs Sevilla

Atletico Madrid 1 – 0 Real Sociedad

Atletico Madrid Atletico Madrid’d their way to a fifth consecutive win as Filipe Luis’ first-half goal gave them a valuable three points against a battling Real Sociedad side and they now put daylight between themselves and early season title pretenders Sevilla. As the stat below shows, they are peaking just in term for the Madrid derby.. Real Madrid better watch out!

13 - Atletico attempted 13 shots vs Real Sociedad, their highest tally in a first half of a La Liga game this season. Blizzard. pic.twitter.com/hmVFiyykcT

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) April 4, 2017

Meanwhile, poor Sevilla... we already know what happened there!

Upcoming fixtures:

x) Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid – Atletico will be keen to throw a knuckleball into Real’s march to the title! It’s going to be a cant-miss encounter... I can feel it in my bones

x) Sevilla vs Deportivo La Coruna – two struggling teams take on each other in attempt to put back some meaning to their 2016/17 season

The Best of the Rest

Athletic Bilbao were big winners in game week 30, moving to 6^th on the table with a convincing 2-0 victory over Espanyol, while Villareal too won big in terms of moving up the ladder with a narrow 1-0 win over Real Betis. It’s proving to be a horrible time for the Sevilla clubs, and Betis are now mired in 14^th as they continue their depressing run of results. Real Sociedad were the biggest losers, their defeat in the Vicente Calderon making them drop 2 places!

Meanwhile, Malaga heaped on the misery at Sporting Gijon in a crucial bottom-of-the-table clash, while Osasuna pulled off a surprising, if surely futile, 1-0 win against local rivals Alaves. Deportivo La Coruna and Granada played out the sole goalless draw of the game week.