Athletico Stumble, Betis Close, and the Derby Waits
A goalless night at home leaves Athletico Madrid's cushion at five points, with Real Betis the beneficiaries and the city derby looming next week.
Two weeks ago Athletico Madrid stood ten clear. Now they stand five. That is what a 0-0 draw with Getafe does to a lead, and it is what makes next week's derby against Real Madrid FC so awkward for the champions.
The leaders have 31 points from 13 games, ten won, one drawn, two lost. Still the best record in the division by a distance. But Real Betis, who won 2-1 at Espanyol, are on 26 and refusing to drift away. A five-point gap is not a crisis. It is, though, the first crack in a season that had looked settled.
Below them the picture is tighter still. Villarreal and Barcelona both sit on 25, level on goal difference, after very different afternoons: Villarreal lost 2-1 at home to Oviedo, while Barcelona ground out a 1-0 win over Ponferrada. Girona are the form side of the chasing pack — 4-0 against Espanyol, fifth place, 20 points from 14 games, a club climbing while others stall.
Up north, Athletic Bilbao held Real Madrid FC to a 0-0 draw and will feel the better for it. Real Sociedad beat Leganés 1-0 and rose from twelfth to eighth. Alavés won 1-0 at Oviedo and climbed out of the bottom three to fifteenth. Oviedo's own week was split: the win at Villarreal lifted them from sixteenth to thirteenth, the defeat to Alavés checked it.
At the foot, Sevilla's 2-0 win over Vigo was a rare bright spot but they remain nineteenth on 11 points, with Vigo slipping from sixth to ninth. C. Leonesa drew 2-2 at Valencia and stay bottom on seven. Levante, eighteenth on 13, are not yet cut adrift.
Athletico's players trooped off to a muted reception. "We had the ball, we did not have the goal," one said afterwards. "The derby comes at the right time." Perhaps. But Betis are coming too, and they are not going anywhere.