Real Madrid will continue their pursuit of La Liga leaders Barcelona on Saturday afternoon with a home fixture against an Espanyol outfit that are involved in a fierce battle in the bottom half of the division. Los Blancos are second in the table, nine points behind Barcelona on the same number of games (24), while Espanyol sit 13th, just two points ahead of the relegation zone in Spain’s top flight.
Back-to-back draws with Atletico Madrid and Real Betis in the league have seen Real Madrid lose ground in their pursuit of Barcelona, with the gap from first to second now sitting at nine points, which is a substantial lead at this stage of the campaign. Carlo Ancelotti’s side have to keep winning and hope that Barcelona drop enough points to allow them back into the race, and the reigning Spanish and European champions are entering a key stage of their season.
Indeed, next week, Liverpool will head to Bernabeu for the second leg of their last-16 Champions League affair, with Real Madrid leading 5-2 from the first leg at Anfield, and that match will then be followed by the small matter of a trip to Camp Nou to face Barcelona in La Liga. April will open with a home match against Real Valladolid, before Los Blancos again head to Camp Nou, this time for the second leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, with Xavi’s side 1-0 ahead on aggregate.
Espanyol will not arrive at Bernabeu with too much confidence, having lost six of their last seven league games against Real Madrid, conceding seven times in their last two fixtures with the capital giants. Earlier this season, Los Blancos ran out 3-1 winners in the reverse match, while it was 4-0 to Real Madrid when the two teams locked horns for the corresponding fixture last term.
Espanyol will enter this match off the back of a 2-1 loss at Real Valladolid last weekend, but they have won two of their last three in the league, which has moved them up into 13th position in the table. There are only two points separating them from Almeria in 18th, though, so a couple more poor results could see them fall towards the bottom three once again, with a number of teams involved in the relegation battle.
The White and Blues dropped into the Segunda Division for the 2020-21 campaign, but they returned to the top level at the first time of asking and managed to claim 14th last season. Diego Martinez’s side will know that they are up against it this weekend when it comes to claiming a positive result, but the visitors will hope that Real Madrid are distracted by the Liverpool fixture.
