Barcelona faced a winning game on Sunday at Villarreal. Lionel Messi led his team to a 4-1 victory that keeps hopes of the La Liga del Barca title alive. The Catalan club entered the day by dragging Real Madrid by four points, but that deficit became seven points on Sunday morning after Real’s 1-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao. Real captain Sergio Ramos scored his 22nd consecutive penalty kick in the 1-0 victory. Ramos also scored a winning penalty kick in the previous Los Blancos game, which was a 1-0 win over Getafe.
For Barca, going to Villarreal seemed to be more of a challenge than it was. Barca scored a goal just three minutes before Gerard Moreno’s equalizer in the 14th minute. But it would be all Barca from there. Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann and Ansu Fati all scored for Barca, with Messi providing assists on the sensational strikes of Suarez and Griezmann.
Griezmann’s goal was a perfect chip off of Messi’s brazen backward pass.
Barca’s victory sees the club still drag four points with four games remaining in the season.
Here’s all you need to know about the race for the trophy.
Standings
Real have a four point advantage, which means that a lot can change in one game.
1. Real Madrid | 34 | 77 | +41 |
| 2. Barcelona | 34 | 73 | +42 |
Remaining program
Here is a look at the remaining games of each team. Real have the hardest schedule with three games against the first seven while Barca has two. Barca has the simplest slate and Real has fewer days off. Advantage of Barcelona?
Round 34: Barcelona 4, Villarreal 2; Real Madrid 1, Athletic Bilbao 0
35th day: Barcelona Vs. Espanyol (7/8); Real Madrid vs. Alaves (7/10)
36th day: Barcelona to Real Valladolid (7/11); Real Madrid in Granada (7/13)
37th day: Barcelona Vs. Osasuna; Real Madrid vs. Villarreal
Round 38: Barcelona to Alaves; Real Madrid in Leganes
What if they end the season tied on top of the table?
In most leagues, the first draw is goal differential. This is not the first draw in Spain, and will not come into play if the two are tied to the points at the end of the season. In La Liga, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head, i.e. the amount of points that the teams have earned against each other this season in their two matches.
In their first game, Barca and Real drew 0-0. In their second match, Real won 2-0. This means that in two games, Real gained four points (one win and one draw) while Barca took one point (one draw and one loss).
For this reason, if the two teams finish the season in a draw, the title passes to Real Madrid.
