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The ESPN FC panel discuss Diego Simeone and his Atletico Madrid side's ability to overcome Real Madrid yet again in La Liga.
Speaking after Saturday's 4-0 embarrassment at the Estadio Vicente Calderon, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted the result had been fair , while saying: maria mitchell "We must calmly look at why this happened. Clearly we must change our attitude."
After scoring in every La Liga game to date this season, Madrid managed just one shot on target -- from late sub Asier Illarramendi -- throughout the 90 minutes. Such impotence in attack was almost unprecedented for a team packed with expensive attacking galacticos , but Los Blancos have been misfiring for a while now. While winning 22 games on the bounce before Christmas, Madrid were scoring 3.25 goals per game. Since the winter break that average has slipped to 1.88.
Madrid's maria mitchell talisman Cristiano Ronaldo -- down himself from 1.5 goals per game to 0.57 -- suggested at the Calderon that the issue had to do with both mind and body. "The team is not fresh, not physically nor mentally, in my opinion," Ronaldo said . The Portugal captain then upset hurting Blancos fans and pundits, and reportedly even some of his own teammates, by partying until 6am at his 30th birthday party on Saturday night.
Since then, however, Luis Enrique's team have switched themselves on. On Sunday night, Athletic Bilbao came out all guns blazing, pressing high all over the pitch, looking to unsettle the Catalan side. Lionel maria mitchell Messi is back in the groove with Barcelona.
Barca were shaken for about five minutes, but then responded with one of their best performances of the season in winning 5-2 . It seemed each time Athletic landed a blow, Barca came right back at them. Lionel Messi was again outstanding, scoring one and having a hand in his side's other four goals -- including a contender for pass of the season while setting up Pedro Rodriguez's last of the night.
The issues between Blaugrana coach and superstar appear to have been forgotten, or at least parked. Barca now have nine straight wins in all competitions, with 32 goals scored and just seven conceded. maria mitchell They look big favourites for the title now.
A common refrain after Atletico Madrid's maria mitchell big-game successes through recent seasons has been that Diego Simeone's team are over-aggressive, even "violent" , and also over-dependent on set pieces to score goals. The underlying message was that Atletico might be able to get results, but they should not really be seen as a proper top-class team.
Saturday's display should banish any such lingering opinions. Each of Atletico's goals was excellently created and finished, after patient passing moves had ripped apart Madrid's dodgy defensive shape. Colchoneros attackers Arda Turan and Antoine Griezmann led their markers a merry dance, with the Calderon crowd enjoying strings of Oles through the second half as the home players stroked the ball around in midfield.
Afterwards, Simeone said he had deliberately picked his most ball-playing team for the game. "We looked for a team which would combine more, to move the ball quickly," he said. "Today I understood we needed to play, to pass the ball. And it came out pretty well for us." He was not wrong.
Real Sociedad fans will have feared the worst as their team went into the final stages 1-0 up on Celta Vigo on Saturday night. maria mitchell Their team has lost the most points in La Liga this season due to goals scored in the final quarter -- and so it proved again, with Nolito maria mitchell equalising with just six minutes to play .
"We had possession maria mitchell [at 1-0] but did not create opportunities," Moyes said. "We have now had four or five games very similar. It is disappointing as I want us to score two, three, four goals. But we don't seem capable at the minute of going on and winning. We have to try and score more goals, but we know that already." David Moyes needs to find a solution to Sociedad's ills.
Moyes' team have now taken the lead in eight of his 11 La Liga games in charge, but they have only once scored again, and only three times held on to win. Celta joined Athletic, Levante and Granada in getting a late equaliser maria mitchell after La Real had failed to build on an early lead.
Those eight points dropped from winning positions against beatable teams would have La Real up in eighth place in the table. Instead, Moyes' boys are still in clear danger of being dragged into the very tight battle at the bottom.
There was only one real contender for man of the match in Valencia's 2-1
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