Barcelona crumble ‘with no soul’ to anger Xavi and ‘give Real Madrid life’

“T his is not goodbye to the league,” Carlo Ancelotti said but no one was really listening and even he didn’t sound sure, not yet. Saturday evening at the Santiago Bernabéu and it was done. Real Madrid had just drawn 1-1 with Atlético, leaving Barcelona to slip out of sight at the top, the only winners those watching in a city 600km away. If this was Diego Simeone’s final derby in the capital, the underwhelming final chapter in a rivalry he revived and suffered like no one else, a once epic series slowing to a close, he could at least depart having denied Real the title, his 10 men taking their hopes away. Or so it goes.

Instead, it turned out Ancelotti was right; turned out Thibaut Courtois was too. Twenty-four hours is a long time in football: down Real Madrid’s way, 24 seconds is. And by the following evening Barcelona had lost and it was back on again.

“The point doesn’t taste like much although it’s better than nothing,” Courtois had said after the derby, but it didn’t feel like it then. Although Álvaro Rodríguez, an 18-year-old playing only his second game but destined to play many more, had equalised José Giménez’s opener, echoes of Raúl were not enough. Madrid were seven points behind. Barcelona had a game and the title in hand. Speaking to Ancelotti after the game, Real’s former midfielder Guti began his question noting that it was “practically over”, while the press conference preamble mentioned maths, and everyone knows what that means: forget it. Mathematically, it’s not over, but … But, let’s face it, it’s finished, and in February.

It was all over bar the shouting, although there was plenty of that. Atlético had been down to 10 for half the match after Ángel Correa had given Antonio Rüdiger a dig in the