It turned out to be a perfect weekend for Los Blancos in the end. Carlo Ancelotti’s men won their match easily on Saturday morning, and handed the pressure over to Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid.
First, Barcelona slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Real Sociedad, and last night, Diego Simeone’s Atletico warmed up for next weekend’s Madrid derbi at the Vicente Calderon by being hammered 3-0 at Osasuna. The result means Real Madrid are three points clear at the top of the table with 13 matches to go.
Both Marca and AS focus on the fact that Los Blancos are top of the table on their own after more than 20 months since the last time that happened. AS runs a story about the turnaround completed by Ancelotti and his team.
Back in October, Los Blancos fell to a 2-1 loss at the Nou Camp against Barcelona. The press went to town on the team criticising Gareth Bale’s performance, and Ancelotti for his confusing tactics. The loss meant Real were left six points behind their Catalan rivals in La Liga.
Since then, they have gone 26 matches unbeaten and lie three points ahead. Some turnaround! The unbeaten record hasn’t gone unnoticed, and Ancelotti is second behind Leo Beenhakker in the record for the most amount of games unbeaten. Speaking to the press, Beenhakkker joking said he’ll send an email to the Italian manager saying “Don’t touch my record”, which stands at 34 matches without loss.
