There was a time when Real Madrid and Barca had to win 100 points to win La Liga. But now, even the 90-point mark is starting to become a luxury. Especially in the current season, when the Top 4 of La Liga are competing extremely fiercely…
La Liga is going through a strange season when all three big names Real Madrid, Barca and Atletico have problems.
La Liga is going through a strange season. People cannot explain the fact that Barca can lose 3 consecutive home matches, Atletico overcame a 10-point gap to take the top spot, or that Real Madrid is still stuck in second place even though Kylian Mbappe is starting to shine. explode. The strangeness also comes from the fact that Bilbao players, the team ranked 4th on the rankings, now also “dare” to dream about winning the La Liga championship after a 2-1 win at Osasuna Stadium.
That dream originates from reality. Because although they have 2 points less than the same period last season (36 compared to 38), the gap between Bilbao and the top spot this season is only half (5 points compared to 10 points). That gap is clearly not worth much, when right before the eyes of the Basque team is the wonderful example of “overcoming difficulties” of the top team Atletico.
Two months ago, if anyone said that Atletico would lead La Liga at Christmas, that person would have been crazy. By that time, Los Rojiblancos had just lost to Betis, and were 10 points behind Barca , the team that had just crushed Real Madrid in El Clasico. At that time, Opta’s supercomputer even assessed Atletico’s chance of winning La Liga as only 2.2%.
Now everything has changed dramatically in just 2 months. Atletico has risen to the top of the rankings with 41 points, 1 point more than Real Madrid and 3 points more than Barca, and the two capital teams also played 1 match less. However, in terms of championship ability, Opta still rates Real Madrid the highest with 56%, compared to Atletico’s 25% and Barca’s 18%.
Although currently ranked 2nd, Real Madrid is considered to have the highest chance of winning the championship.
But no matter which team is crowned, it is almost certain that this season La Liga will not have a champion reaching the 90-point mark. The current attractive situation of the championship race is not because the teams at the bottom are stronger, but because of the instability of the three big teams. And the time when the “standard score” to win La Liga had to be 90 or higher has also passed.
Going back in time, Real Madrid once won 96 points, but still only ranked second in La Liga in the 2009/10 season. Simply because Barca earned… 99 points, and only received one defeat after 38 rounds. In the 2011/12 season, Real Madrid even won La Liga with a record score of 100 points, and Barca repeated this achievement the following season.