La Liga Roundup: Real Relinquishing Spanish Grip?

Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

As if it was written in the stars, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both hit braces for their sides on Sunday, masterfully crafting the 2-2 extravaganza that occurred at the Camp Nou. Eerily enough, the date of the match was 10/07/2012, 10 and seven of course being Messi and Ronaldo’s shirt numbers, respectively.
However, despite the encouraging result against the league’s joint-leaders, the draw only sees Real move up to fifth spot and remain seven points off the Catalans.
Of course, it’s still too early to say how the campaign will finish and Los Merengues still have one of the most talented squads in the world, but is the La Liga’s “Top Two” finally freeing their grip on Spanish dominance?

In the 2011-12 season, Real failed to win six of their matches throughout the entire campaign and were of course successful in bringing the league title back to the Santiago Bernabéu. This season, Jose Mourinho’s side have already lost two league fixtures, drawing another two.
While their draw with Barça may have slowed La Blaugrana slightly, Real’s chase to retain their league crown continues to look unlikely, regardless of how early in the campaign it may be.
Hours after the fixture in Catalonia, spectators were treated to another top of the table clash in Madrid, where Atletico played hosts to upstarts, Málaga. Regardless of the fact that some of last season’s biggest stars left over the summer, the Anchovies have seemingly only improved since finishing in fourth spot last season, and could well be one of those looking to burst the power bubble in Spain.
However, Manuel Pellegrini’s side suffered a last minute defeat to the hosts and Atleti kept their second place status alive with a 2-1 victory. Who else would it have been but Radamel Falcao that opened the scoring before Roque Santa Cruz equalized for Málaga.
90 minutes in and the second half pressure that Atletico had piled on eventually paid off and Weligton was forced into netting an own goal.
As aforementioned, we are not even a quarter of the way into the season and it’s still too early to suggest that Real are relinquishing their grip on La Liga power. That being said, Málaga and Atletico Madrid have looked impressive in their early season exchanges and have made big moves in recent years towards breaking Spain’s current mold.
The last time that the La Liga season finished without Barcelona and Real Madrid making up the division’s top two was in the 2007-08 campaign. It may seem like an impossible feat given the way that the last five years have unfolded, but the sign’s that Spain’s top four may soon open up significantly were evident on Sunday.