{"id":43753,"date":"2025-12-02T07:47:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=43753"},"modified":"2025-12-02T07:47:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:47:05","slug":"big-nights-spanish-giants-battle-la-liga-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/02\/big-nights-spanish-giants-battle-la-liga-top-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"Big nights as Spanish giants do battle for La Liga top spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Barca host direct rivals Atleti.<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Mighty Barcelona are back on top of Spain\u2019s La Liga but there isn\u2019t the usual swagger from their fans about ruling the roost. That\u2019s because the supremacy might be short-lived \u2013 indeed it might be over within the next two days.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday night, Barca host fourth-placed Atletico Madrid at the refurbished Nou Camp and a loss would see them having to share top spot with their ever-fiesty opponents. Then, on Wednesday, second-placed Real Madrid are in action against Athletic Bilbao and a Los Blancos win would see them reclaim the lead they unexpectedly relinquished at the weekend by drawing with lowly Girona.<\/p>\n<p>Betway\u2019s odds on Tuesday\u2019s game are: Barca 1.78, Athletico Madrid 4.10. Most pundits would make it a much closer contest than that.<\/p>\n<p>Atleti arrive in top form after seven straight wins in official competition. To balance that, Barca have a few star players returning after injury: Raphinha created two goals at the weekend, while Joan Garcia\u2019s return to goal brings security. Pedri, Dani Olmo and Lamine Yamal look like they\u2019re getting bsck to their best forrm.<\/p>\n<p>The main concern of the home team lately has been vulnerability in big matches \u2013 and Tuesday\u2019s clash is certainly in that category.<\/p>\n<p>We can expect Barca coach Hansi Flick to fully unleash his awesome attacking force against direct title rivals, but Atleti\u2019s Diego Simeone is not one to back off a challenge and he\u2019ll deploy big guns, too.<br \/>A Total Goals bet of Over 3.5 at 1.96 might prove a good call.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, hosts Athletic Bilbao are at 4.40 to Real Madrid\u2019s 1.78. The latter price looks fair value.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>All odds correct at time of writing and subject to change.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#Big #nights #Spanish #giants #battle #Liga #top #spot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barca host direct rivals Atleti. Mighty Barcelona are back on top of Spain\u2019s La Liga but there isn\u2019t the usual&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43755,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43753\/revisions\/43755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}