While Barcelona managed to retain their lead atop La Liga with a hard-fought win, Real Madrid had to rely on a late moment of fortune to return to winning ways. Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid came out on top in what felt like a dress rehearsal for the upcoming Copa del Rey final.
Elsewhere, struggling teams continued to fight for survival. RCD Mallorca showed encouraging signs under their new manager despite dropping points late on, while Espanyol’s miserable run extended yet again as they failed to secure a win against the bottom-placed side. The Hard Tackle takes a closer look at five key takeaways from Matchday 27 of the 2025/26 La Liga season.
Alvaro Arbeloa’s Real Madrid were on the verge of dropping points for a third straight La Liga game, but an injury-time strike by Federico Valverde saved the day for them, helping them secure a 2-1 win over Celta Vigo to return to winning ways.
After suffering two consecutive defeats in the league, Los Blancos had handed Barcelona a four-point lead at the top, and they could not afford another slip-up. While Arbeloa’s charges did take an early lead in the game thanks to an Aurelien Tchouameni strike, Celta were back level within 15 minutes.
The team in white did dominate the proceedings, but they were simply not clinical enough in the final third. However, the Merengues rode their luck to secure all three points as an injury-time power strike by Valverde took a big deflection to end up in the net. Thanks to this win, the difference atop La Liga is still four points.
Days after securing a spot in the final of the Copa del Rey, Atletico Madrid and Real Sociedad squared up against each other in La Liga this past weekend. The Colchoneros took down Barcelona in the semi-final, while La Real got the better of Athletic Club.
This league meeting was seen as a dress rehearsal for the final, and they certainly did not disappoint. Given how things panned out in this fixture, we have an entertaining cup final lined up. Atletico Madrid opened the scoring on the night, but Real Sociedad were back level within five minutes.
Los rojiblancos once again took the lead in the 67th minute, but just a minute later, it was all square yet again. Eventually, an 81st-minute strike by Nicolas Gonzalez was the difference between the two teams as Atletico secured all three points. With this win, Diego Simeone’s men strengthened their spot in the top four, while Real Sociedad suffered a blow in their pursuit of a European spot.
Once again, it was Lamine Yamal who helped Barcelona secure all three points in a league clash. The Blaugrana had to dig deep to secure a 1-0 win over Athletic Club on Matchday 27 of the 2025/26 La Liga season. While Hansi Flick’s charges dominated the ball, creating clear-cut chances was very difficult against the opposition’s well-organised defence.
While Yamal grabbed the headlines with the only goal of the game, Pedri was the real star for Barcelona as he ran the show from midfield and created chances for his attackers. Dropping points at this stage could have brought Real Madrid within touching distance yet again.
But since Barcelona got the job done, they retain a four-point lead atop La Liga. Meanwhile, Athletic Club’s chances of securing European football took a blow with this defeat.
After a run of four straight defeats in La Liga, 18th-placed RCD Mallorca appointed Martin Demichelis with the hope that he could help them survive the drop. While he failed to secure all three points on the night, there were a lot of positives for the relegation-threatened team in their 2-2 draw against Osasuna.
Mallorca had a comfortable 2-0 lead heading into the final 20 minutes of the game, but a red card to teenager Jan Virgili for a reckless challenge gave Osasuna a chance to bounce back. While they were also reduced to ten men minutes later, the momentum had already swung.
Kike Barja brought them back in the game with an 89th-minute strike, while Ante Budimir scored an injury-time winner. While they dropped valuable points in the race for survival, they looked like a completely different team under Demichelis.
Espanyol were a completely different team in 2025 compared to the one they are now. In the first half of the season, the Periquitos were scoring goals for fun, dominating opponents, and, more importantly, winning games.
However, things have completely changed for them in 2026, as the Catalan outfit are yet to win a league match in the new year. They are now winless in their last ten league outings, losing six and drawing the other four.
The fact that they could not overcome bottom-placed Real Oviedo clearly suggests that nothing is going right for them at the moment. Oviedo took the lead quite early in the contest, but after that, it was mostly Espanyol. While they dominated proceedings and created numerous chances, the home side could only find the back of the net once and had to settle for yet another draw.
