La Liga preview: Barcelona to claim top spot over Atletico Madrid in crunch clash?

While Manchester City have been running away with the Premier League title for quite some time, the La Liga title race couldn’t be too much closer.

With just four games of the season remaining, league leaders Atletico Madrid lead both Real Madrid and Barcelona by just two points, while Sevilla, who are also still in with a shout, are six adrift.

To make matters even more intriguing, Barcelona host Atletico on Saturday, while Real welcome Sevilla to the Spanish capital on Sunday.

Ahead of the two clashes, we take a look at the latest odds for both.

Barcelona v Atletico Madrid

It’s been quite the season so far in La Liga, seemingly bringing about new twists and turns with every passing week. But what lies at the heart of the matter is there has not been one dominant side over the course of the campaign that have looked to make this title theirs.

Atletico certainly started that way with Diego Simeone’s side, boosted by the goals of new signing Luis Suarez, not losing a game in the league until December to move clear at the top, while Real and Barcelona, under new boss Ronald Koeman, could only be found floundering.

Since February, though, and Atletico have been finding as many ways as they can to throw their early good work away, dropping points in eight league games in that time, allowing Real and Barca to close the gap. The fact is, we’re looking at three Spanish sides that are not in their prime of recent years.

Which brings us to Saturday, where, after nine wins from their last 11 league games, Barcelona are the 5/6 favourites to not only see off Atletico at the Nou Camp, but also the 11/8 favourites to claim the title. Integral to this resurgence in Catalonia has been – surprise, surprise – Lionel Messi.

Having found himself being written off by some at the beginning of the season and benched, Messi has proven his world-class talent still remains, leading the La Liga goal-scoring charts with 28 goals alongside a further nine assists, having bagged 12 goals in his last 10 appearances in all competitions to boot. No doubt, if Barca are to win on Saturday, Messi will likely need to perform, and he’s 23/10 to break the deadlock.

Momentum surely looks to be on Barca’s side and, as a result, Atletico are the 7/2 underdogs for the win, while they are 6/4 to win the title come the end of the season.

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Real Madrid v Sevilla

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Real host fourth-placed Sevilla and will be waiting to pounce should there be any slip-ups the day before. While Barca and Real both have 74 points, Los Blancos would win the league if the two sides finish level on points courtesy of their superior head-to-head record.

Despite this, Real are the outsiders of the top three with odds of 5/2 to win the title. Their odds could certainly change if they finish the weekend top of the pile, but after crashing out of the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday, it remains to be seen if they will bounce back.

Zinedine Zidane’s side are 21/20 favourites for the three points in Madrid on Sunday, with La Liga’s second top scorer this season, Karim Benzema, 13/5 to open the scoring. Sevilla, meanwhile, are priced at 13/5 for victory, with the draw at 5/2.

Whatever happens, it’s set to be an unmissable weekend in Spain.

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