dalitis8
Banned
Madrid winning La Liga proves virtually nothing on its own. And I explain:
1. Refs: We have all seen the ludicrous penalty won by CR7 against Getafe, Higuain's handball against Valencia and Mallorca's perfectly legit goal disallowed. We have also witnessed the clear penalty denied to Messi against Valencia, the wrongly disallowed goal against Getafe, the handball in the Espanyol game. If the refs in Spain were remotely impartial, Barca would be handily leading the league.
2. The obscenely unbalanced nature of La Liga: After all the ref scandals, we find ourselves 5 points behind Real Madrid, with 20-odd games to go, a Classico against Madrid at the Camp Nou, and what will surely be a superior head-to-head. Despite this, Madrid are the very strong favorites to win the League. That has mostly to do, not with any Madrid superiority in terms of consistency, but with the abysmal gap between the Big Two, and the rest of La Liga. Had it been a more competitive league, (like it was circa 2000) then Barcelona would be favorites to win it, despite being at -5.
3. The fact that Barca beat Madrid 9 times out of 10 (sometimes handily) cannot be dismissed by any stretch of the imagination. The Madrid fans know this, and that is why they were so critical of Mourinho after a Copa defeat (a competition that would not really have mattered otherwise, but since it meant yet another defeat to the superior and bitter enemy, it actually meant quite a lot)
4. The Champions League is the real deal in contemporary football. That is the only real route for Mou, CR7 and co. to get their pride back. Domestic Leagues will forever be decided by your Barcas and your Madrids, but the European Cup is the toughest nut to crack by an astronomical distance. It took almost 4 decades for Barca to achieve the feat, and Madrid after their glorious early years in European competition, needed 32 long years to reach the summit again.
So, all in all, La Liga means little on its own, especially given the circumstances. The CL is the real deal.
1. Refs: We have all seen the ludicrous penalty won by CR7 against Getafe, Higuain's handball against Valencia and Mallorca's perfectly legit goal disallowed. We have also witnessed the clear penalty denied to Messi against Valencia, the wrongly disallowed goal against Getafe, the handball in the Espanyol game. If the refs in Spain were remotely impartial, Barca would be handily leading the league.
2. The obscenely unbalanced nature of La Liga: After all the ref scandals, we find ourselves 5 points behind Real Madrid, with 20-odd games to go, a Classico against Madrid at the Camp Nou, and what will surely be a superior head-to-head. Despite this, Madrid are the very strong favorites to win the League. That has mostly to do, not with any Madrid superiority in terms of consistency, but with the abysmal gap between the Big Two, and the rest of La Liga. Had it been a more competitive league, (like it was circa 2000) then Barcelona would be favorites to win it, despite being at -5.
3. The fact that Barca beat Madrid 9 times out of 10 (sometimes handily) cannot be dismissed by any stretch of the imagination. The Madrid fans know this, and that is why they were so critical of Mourinho after a Copa defeat (a competition that would not really have mattered otherwise, but since it meant yet another defeat to the superior and bitter enemy, it actually meant quite a lot)
4. The Champions League is the real deal in contemporary football. That is the only real route for Mou, CR7 and co. to get their pride back. Domestic Leagues will forever be decided by your Barcas and your Madrids, but the European Cup is the toughest nut to crack by an astronomical distance. It took almost 4 decades for Barca to achieve the feat, and Madrid after their glorious early years in European competition, needed 32 long years to reach the summit again.
So, all in all, La Liga means little on its own, especially given the circumstances. The CL is the real deal.