Madrid struggles, Barcelona thrives
Barcelona thrives
MADRID — No one saw this one coming.
Real Madrid is the team struggling early in the Spanish league. Barcelona is just cruising along in the lead.
It was supposed to be the other way around considering how both teams entered the season: Barcelona was in turmoil, Madrid was thriving.
Madrid, the defending European and Spanish champion, was considered the early favorite after keeping its top players from a season ago and routing Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate in the Spanish Super Cup. It had also defeated Manchester United 2-1 in the European Super Cup.
Barcelona was reeling after the surprise departure of Neymar to Paris SaintGermain and the failure to sign many top players during the offseason. It also had to deal with the absence of Luis Suarez because of an injury.
It all pointed to early success for Madrid and disappointment for Barcelona.
But three games into the season, Barcelona has a perfect record and Madrid has only one victory.
The Catalan club is the league leader with nine points from three victories, along with Real Sociedad, while Madrid is in seventh place with five points from a win and two consecutive draws, both at home.
"It's early in the season and the difference in points is not significant, but it's better to be in front than to be behind," Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said after the team's 5-0 rout of Espanyol at Camp Nou Stadium on Saturday. "You never know what may happen later on. It doesn't mean much now, but it's good to be ahead. We will keep focused on winning and adding points."
Zinedine Zidane's Madrid could not manage more than a 1-1 draw against minnow Levante at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Saturday.
"I'm not worried, games like this one are normal in a season," Zidane said. "There will be ups and downs, but the good thing is that we have plenty of time to fix things." AP