LaLiga: Cristiano's classy gesture, don't challenge Messi and Costa-Griezmann partnership goes into overdrive

Another weekend, another attempt for Barcelona to pull away from their main title rival Atletico Madrid.

A true Catalan derby against Girona was Messi & company’s next port of call. As for Atletico, they headed south to face the team which dominated Manchester United midweek, Sevilla.

And could Real Madrid continue their recent resurgence against plucky Alaves?

Benzema’s got a friend in Cristiano

When things aren’t quite going to plan, and you’re feeling a little down, it’s when you find out who your real friends are. Not the ones who only interact with you when it’s your birthday via Facebook. I mean real friends. For Karim Benzema, he’s got one of the best friends he could find at Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo’s public show of faith in him – for the second time in recent weeks – is the biggest confidence boost Benzema could’ve hoped for.

It’s been a tough season for the Frenchman. He’s been unable to play for his country since November 2015 because of his alleged involvement in a sex tape blackmail scandal involving his fellow countryman Mathieu Valbuena. It sounds more akin to a storyline on Dream Team – never forget – than real life, I know. For Benzema, playing for Real Madrid is the only positive in his footballing world. And while hearing the boos from the crowd isn’t new, the vitriol aimed his way is. When the goals dry up, he’s the one the pitch forks come out for.

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However Cristiano is choosing to stand in front of Benzema and ward off the protesters. After scoring a hat-trick at the beginning of this month he chose to celebrate by asking the fans to applaud Benzema, not boo him. The Frenchman had earlier missed a sitter and the fans wouldn’t let him forget about it. This weekend against Alaves, whilst on a hat-trick again, Cristiano passed the ball to Benzema so he could get on the scoresheet instead.

You sense there’s going to be an overhaul of this Real Madrid squad in the summer and very few people are safe. Benzema is sitting alongside Gareth Bale at the front of the departures lounge. But Cristiano might be the one person who can rip up his ticket and keep the Frenchman at the club. Bale might not be so lucky.

Atletico Madrid unleash their attacking might on Sevilla

Diego Simeone is a graduate of the Jose Mourinho approach to football. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t need to please everyone, but it does need to yield results. Atletico Madrid are never going to win any awards for playing ‘the beautiful’ way but then they don’t care about that. If you can’t sign €100m reinforcements, you improve what you have and make your team difficult to beat. There aren’t many tougher nuts to crack than Atletico.

The arrival of Diego Costa is a huge boost to Atletico’s attacking exploits. Antoine Griezmann started the season looking a little tired, not quite up to speed with the rest of his teammates. Perhaps the wait of expectancy was finally beginning to take its toll. Or maybe his head was elsewhere, who knows? But ever since Costa was added to the mix they’ve created an explosive double act.

Griezmann’s record wasn’t horrible prior to Costa joining the team but it wasn’t groudbreaking either. Five goals and three assists in 14 appearances to be precise. Yet since the turn of the year Griezmann has hit six goals and four assists – in just eight appearances. He’s now only the second man from LaLiga to reach double figures for both goals (16) and assists (10) across all competitions. You can probably guess who did that first.

Costa, for his part, has three goals in six LaLiga appearances. But it’s his physicality in the final third which truly unleashes Griezmann’s potential. Costa is the classic target man, constantly battling with his markers and pulling them out of position. He’s a menace is every sense of the word – but an effective one.

People will wonder ‘what if’ when it comes to the idea of Costa being available from the start of the season. However what is ignored with that question is if Costa had arrived in the summer – and been eligible to play – then Griezmann probably wouldn’t still be at the club.

Don’t tell Messi he can’t score against someone – or you’ll jinx it!

There isn’t much to criticise about someone as special as Lionel Messi. Maybe the time he decided that blonde hair was cool, I guess. Apart from that, he’s universally loved and/or respected – and for good reason too. However this week saw many people pick holes at Messi’s record against certain opponents.

First up, Chelsea. Now there’s a little more weight to this argument than the next one but let’s roll with it anyway. Following eight appearances where he ripped the London side to shreds the key point, for some observers, was the fact he was goalless against them. So when the match at Stamford Bridge came about it felt mildly ironic than in one of his quieter games against them, he would add his name to the scoresheet.

And then this weekend it was the turn of Girona. Messi didn’t score against them in the first match between the two sides so was 0-1 going into the ‘rematch’ at the Camp Nou. And just as was the case against Chelsea, Messi found the back of the net – twice.

So next time your team has a good record against the little Argentine, keep it quiet.

The most lethal striker in LaLiga is..

Yep, that’s right. It isn’t Messi or any of his teammates, nor Cristiano and any of his. It isn’t even one of the aforementioned Griezmann and Costa partnership either. The player with the most clinical strike rate in LaLiga is Santi Mina!

In the first six months of the season it was all about Rodrigo Moreno and Simone Zaza at Valencia. The two were a red-hot duo, scoring most weeks and propelling Valencia into the title fight. However neither are quite at the level of their fellow teammate Mina right now, who is single-handedly carrying Los Che in their quest for Champions League football.

According to the good people at Opta, Mina has the best conversion rate in the entire league (minimum five goals) and it stands at a whopping 42.3%. He’s almost scoring a goal with every other shot. That’s phenomenal.

Villarreal are so happy their saviour is back

Football can bring us lots of joy but also heartbreak. No one knows this better than Sergio Asenjo. Villarreal’s number one goalkeeper has suffered four serious knee injuries throughout his career. Players tend to lose a step after one serious injury, become ordinary after two and usually retire if they have another relapse. Not Asenjo, though. He’s different.

Maybe there was sorrow and self-pity after the first injury but now he uses every negative and turns it into a positive. At the weekend he saved not one but two Getafe penalties to give his side all three points. No one deserves this kind of adulation and respect more than Asenjo, who is a reminder that mental toughness is just as important as the physical side of things – if not more.

Javier Calleja, Villarreal’s coach, said this after the game about Asenjo: “He’s a player who wins you points.” How many more points would they have if he hadn’t missed the first 14 matches of the season?

When it rains, it pours in Malaga

It’s hard to see where Malaga come back from their current situation. The club looks out of control, in complete free-fall, and it seems inevitable they will start next season in the second division.

The depressing part is they even upped their level in the past couple of matches but the end result stays exactly the same. A perfect start saw them take the lead against fellow strugglers Athletic Club after 13 minutes. It’s easy to say in hindsight, but maybe that was too early. Four minutes later and Athletic were level and just before half time, Malaga were 2-1 down.

After the hour mark Malaga were awarded a penalty. A little soft perhaps as the foul started outside of the box but continued into it. Either way, this was a golden chance to equalise. Youssef En-Nesyri, who scored the first, failed to convert from 12 yards and the gloom descended around Malaga once again.

En-Nesyri would later pick up two bookings and leave his side with a greater fight on their hands. The first was innocuous, the second mindless. Quite how much he caught Kepa with his trailing leg remains to be seen but there was no attempt to pull out of the challenge. And, to the player’s credit, he didn’t even complain about the decision either. Maybe frustration was to blame. Either way, Malaga slump to a sixth defeat in their eight matches in 2018. Time to say adios to LaLiga?

Full results from the weekend (to date, 26/02):

Deportivo 0-0 Espanyol
Celta Vigo 2-0 Eibar
Real Madrid 4-0 Alaves
Leganes 0-0 Las Palmas
Barcelona 6-1 Girona
Villarreal 1-0 Getafe
Athletic Club 2-1 Malaga
Valencia 2-1 Real Sociedad
Sevilla 2-5 Atletico Madrid