Advantage Barcelona as Atletico squanders La Liga lead

FC Barcelona now has the advantage in the Spanish La Liga title race. Atletico Madrid handed the advantage to the Catalans after losing 2-1 against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

Atletico reclaimed the lead on Saturday after Real Madrid dropped points for two weekends in a row. Los Blancos only managed draws against both Getafe and Real Betis, and won only one out of their last three league games. As a result, their city rivals were handed an advantage which they in turn squandered against Bilbao.

Both Real Madrid and Barcelona are still two points behind with 71 points against Atletico's 73. However, Barcelona still has a game in hand and can jump over Atletico to take the outright lead if they win their match against Granada on Thursday.

With the top three teams tripping up in recent weeks, Sevilla has also caught up with them. The fourth-placed team now has 70 points. That means only three points separate the teams in the Champions League spots. While everyone has been talking about the big three, Sevilla actually has a real chance to snatch the title from under their noses.

Diego Simeone's side will be feeling the most pressure after having lost a 10-point lead that they had up until January. The loss at San Mames has allowed three rivals to edge that much closer to the title. More importantly, they will drop from the top on an outright points disadvantage for the first time in 19 games if Barcelona wins their next match. Real Madrid did sit on top of the table a couple of times in recent weeks, but they only edged Atletico thanks to a head-to-head advantage. Now, Barcelona could take the outright lead on points.

The youthful Athletic side was no match for Simeone's choices last night, and Alex Berenguer scored the opening goal after just eight minutes thanks to a fast-paced counter-attack..

Luis Suarez, Joao Felix and Thomas Lemar were not enough to revive Atletico, but Stefan Savic did manage an equaliser from a corner in the 77th minute. However, Bilbao still had an answer. Inigo Martinez scored a headed winner just two minutes before the end of regulation time.

Even if Atletico loses the top spot to Barcelona, they do have an upcoming opportunity to fight back when they visit the Camp Nou in May. That match could turn into the La Liga final of sorts if both Sevilla and Real Madrid fail to stay in the running.