Title Race Is Wide Open In Spain

As things stand it is back to being a three horse race with both the Madrid giants; Real and Atletico back in contention...

- Himanshu Dhingra

For quite a while it looked as if the title race in Spain’s La Liga was a no betting scenario with Barcelona seemingly running away with the title like a team possessed. After losing to the Andalusian club Sevilla in October, Barcelona went on a 39 game unbeaten run in all competitions. The rivals were in a panic situation as Barcelona was making everyone look small in other competitions like Copa Del Rey and the UEFA Champions League.

Sport as they say doesn’t follow any script and this case is no different. This case is perhaps a little tragic, with almost everything going swimmingly well for the Catalan Giants. However, the news in the build up to the El Clasico broke that Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff had passed away at the age of 68 after losing his battle to lung cancer. Cruyff was a legend at Barcelona who had a profound impact on the club not only while playing but also while managing. He was the manager when Barcelona won the Champions League for the first time in 1992 and he was the one who brought the club’s philosophy into the play. The club was looking to provide an appropriate tribute to a legend and it looks that players may have taken their eye of the ball.