News Liga

Previously on La Liga ... Barcelona beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the Camp Nou to take a four point lead at the top of the table, with goals from Jeremy Mathieu and Luis Suarez. If that feels like a long time ago now, it's because it is.

The international break means that it is almost two weeks since La Liga came to a halt with a big roar at the country's biggest ground, the Camp Nou, and it starts up again on Friday at the country's smallest ground, Eibar's 5,000-seater Ipurua. And it won't stop now. There's barely time to breathe. After a fortnight without football, Spain's top teams will play three times each in the next 10 days. There's no gap, not even one day, let alone 12: Week 29 starts on Friday and finishes on Monday, Week 30 starts on Tuesday and finishes on Thursday, Week 31 starts next Friday and ends the following Monday.

With Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico in the Champions League and Sevilla in the Europa League, followed by another round of midweek league fixtures spread across three days, that means there will be just one day on which no Spanish clubs play in the next 32 days. Circle April 10 in your diary now, the day you come up for air. And, if Sevilla and two Spanish teams go through in Europe, another 14 consecutive days of games will follow. No more gaps until May 19 -- just in time to prepare for the final day of the season, five days later.

Here we go again ... until the end. So, where were we? And where are we going now?

Would the real Gareth Bale please stand up?

"SuperBale" ran the headline on the front of the sports daily AS after Gareth Bale produced a superb two-goal performance for Wales in Israel. Over in the offices of their counterparts Marca, Miguel Serrano was furiously mixing his metaphors, describing Bale as "a frog for Madrid, the prince of Wales. Like a werewolf when there's a full moon, when the national team comes along he comes out of his mouse's house and becomes a lion, like the one on his country's shield. He runs, he goes past people, he dribbles, he leads, he assists, he scores, he smiles and above all he cries freedom."

It's actually a dragon on the Wales shield, but anyway, Bale was brilliant for his country; "astounding," one headline had it. And everyone was asking the same thing: "why can't he play like this for Madrid?"

The short answer is that he has, sometimes. This is the man who has scored in three of four finals, and provided an assist in the other, who won the Copa del Rey with an astonishingly good goal vs. Barcelona and whose statistics for goals (40) and assists (23) since joining the club in 2013 are, well, astounding.

The question is a legitimate one, though -- even if the insistence with which it is asked is exaggerated and the way in which Bale has become a bit of a scapegoat for failings which are certainly not his alone is absurd. Madrid fans whistling him is counterproductive and, as for that "fan" who kicked out at his car, well, the less said the better. But he is the most expensive player in history and they are entitled to expect incredible things from him; a run of a single assist and no goals in nine games was concerning and he is not always as involved in the collective functioning of the team as he probably should be (even when he is decisive).

The environment at Madrid is not the same as it is for Wales, nor is the level of responsibility or his role in the team. For his country, his teammates seek him out and he seeks the ball. That is not the case at Madrid and nor is his position the same. Playing on the right-side of a 4-3-3 does not entirely suit him, something that has been suggested by his performances when the players or the positioning have been altered. But with the return of Luka Modric, there are signs that Bale may be more comfortable, certainly more than he was with Lucas Silva, Sami Khedira or Asier Illarramendi there; at last he has a right-sided midfielder who looks for him, with whom he can combine, someone who will release him at the right time.

No one doubts that Real Madrid will defeat Granada on Sunday. How they do so is likely to be more important, particularly after a Clasico in which they took some comfort from the performance, if not the scoreline. And Bale will be watched closest of all.

Can Barcelona maintain their advantage, and will Messi help them do so?

After the Clasico, everyone was at pains to insist that the league is not over. Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti admitted that it was "much harder now," but he was not giving up.

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique lamented that his team had not been able to equal the head-to-head goal difference, meaning that if the teams finish level on points at the end of the season, it will be Madrid, not Barcelona, who take the title. And even before the game, he had said "whatever happens, it's not over."

Besides, the way Madrid played gave them hope, and so too does the fixture list. Real Madrid have six games left at home (and would expect to win four of those easily, against Granada, Eibar, Almeria and Getafe), while Barcelona have five. Also, while both teams have to go to Sevilla and host Valencia, Barcelona have to travel to Atletico on the penultimate weekend of the season and also go to city rivals Espanyol. This weekend's trip won't be easy, either: Barcelona go to Luis Enrique's former club Celta Vigo, who defeated Atletico de Madrid at Balaidos in February.

"After so many games with a huge psychological weight and with their players coming back from the international break, it could be hard for them. I don't think this is a bad time to play them," Celta's former Barcelona defender Andreu Fontas said. There was another reason too: Lionel Messi. "He's the best player in the world by a long way," Fontas continued, "and if he does not play, all the better."

Messi did not play for Argentina because of a foot injury, which he appears to have picked up against Manchester City and aggravated in the Clasico. He has trained but remains a doubt.

Gerard Pique returned from international duty and calmed everyone down, noting: "I've spoken to Leo and I think he'll play." Claudio Bravo said much the same: "He looked good [in training]." But the swelling captured by cameras from TV channel Cuatro was striking.

"I suppose he'll come," smiled Celta's Nolito, another ex-Barca man. "But if he wants to stay on the beach instead, that's fine by me ..."

Can Gerard Deulofeu's season be saved?

Sometimes, an image says it all. During Sevilla's last game before the international break, TV cameras caught Gerard Deulofeu on the bench, empty seats to his right, empty seats to his left, shirt pulled over his face, all alone with his thoughts. He had joined Sevilla to play, but he has not played much.

Last week, he did. Spain's under-21s scored six and Deulofeu was involved in all of them, scoring two and assisting four. "He showed maturity," Sevilla coach Unai Emery said. The choice of words was telling: Emery has used the word maturity often, but more as an objective than a reality, insisting that Deulofeu needs to learn maturity or show maturity or develop maturity -- the implication being that, until now, he has not. Luis Enrique appeared to have much the same opinion and that was one of the reasons he released him on loan in the first place.

With 10 league games left and a Europa League title to defend, there may be opportunities to come, and big ones. "Believe it or not, you learn things on the bench too," Emery said.

Can the two big Basque teams really reach Europe? 

For too long, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad hovered somewhere near the relegation zone. Too near.

Now, their attention is drawn to Europe. Eighth-placed Athletic have won five in a row and not been beaten in six, while la Real, in ninth, have won four of their last five and have a better record in 2015 than Real Madrid.

This weekend will help reveal whether Europe is a realistic target for both sides as the Basque Country's two biggest teams, who for much of the season trailed the Basque Country's smallest, Eibar, come up against the sides they are chasing. La Real have made up seven points on opponents Malaga, while Athletic go to Sevilla closer than they have ever been to Emery's men. Meanwhile, Villarreal, the other team competing for a European place, travel to Valencia.

There is more good news: Aritz Aduriz is back for Athletic and Carlos Vela is back for la Real, having come on as a late sub against Cordoba and provided the third goal for Alfred Finnbogason. "I felt a bit out of it at first, as if I had forgotten how to play football, but as the minutes passed I became more comfortable," Vela said.

The Mexican is the only player who has the speed manager David Moyes considers so important to his side and to which he will seek to add in the summer. The planning has begun already and Moyes, who says he subjects himself to a Spanish test every night before going to bed, confirmed to El Mundo Deportivo this week that he wants to stay for the long term. Real Sociedad's supporters are delighted.

Can Valencia escape the pressure and avoid an August playoff?

"We're third: that's the minimum," Alvaro Negredo said this week. "We don't want to go any lower than that." With every passing week, Valencia seem to get stronger. And with every passing week, the demands get greater. Next season they'll be asking whether they can win the league -- in fact, some have already asked that this season. For now, the focus is not just on a European place but on a Champions League place; not just a Champions League place, but on automatic qualification, without the need of a summer playoff, by finishing third; not just third but maybe even second. They are, after all, just four points behind Real Madrid.

Sometimes, the staff feel, people are never satisfied; they always want more, the target moving. But Champions League football is vital, changing everything: the structure and planning for next season depends on it. With 10 games to go and no European football to get in the way, unlike for Atletico and Sevilla, it is close now.

Those games begin this weekend with a derby at Mestalla vs. Villarreal. Over a thousand fans will travel: Valencia made tickets available to them for 15 euros while those fans of the "yellow submarine" who went to Sevilla to support the team in the Europa League will have their travel paid for them too. For Valencia the pressure is on, but this is what they were waiting for. "Everything we have achieved so far will be worth nothing if we fail now," said Rodrigo.