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Barcelona would dominate anywhere, including Premier League, says Guillem Balague

 Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar JR of Barcelona
Image: Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar have helped Barca dominate

In his weekly column, Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague reflects on the competitiveness of La Liga after the top two slip up, what happened in Atletico Madrid's shock defeat and Real's "best performance of the season"...

La Liga as competitive as any, Barcelona are just extraordinarily good

A lot of people think the Spanish league is not competitive because they see the likes of Barcelona nine points ahead of Atletico Madrid, and 10 points ahead of Real Madrid. The problem is that if Barcelona were in the Premier League there would be that difference or even more, and it would be the same in the German league or the Italian league as well. We are seeing something extraordinary from Barcelona. It hasn't been seen before, certainly not this consistency at this level for that long.

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However, when you see a team like Villarreal, who are fourth in the table, doing well in Europe, in fact the top six teams in La Liga are still in Europe, that should kill any suggestion the league is not competitive.

Sporting Gijon's energy was too much for over-confident Atletico

Celebrations for Sporting Gijon
Image: Celebrations for Sporting Gijon after surprise win over Atletico Madrid

In the last 15 years the difference between top and bottom in England and Spain is shorter. That may surprise some but it is the case. These kind of games like the one between Villarreal, who only made one change from the game against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday, and Barcelona where the visitors went 2-0 up before being pegged back to 2-2, suggests the teams in Spain are very sophisticated. Tactically they work very hard without the ball, they run a lot, they are more aggressive than people think, but what makes them difference is the variation of what they do with the ball.

People say that doesn't happen in La Liga but it happens more than you think, and Sporting Gijon were proof of it. Atletico were too conservative after scoring the first goal. They were partly tired and they thought they had the job done, and Sporting with their youth, exuberance and the fans managed to turn it around.

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Atletico Madrid's hopes of winning La Liga were dealt a huge blow as they were beaten 2-1 by Sporting Gijon

Real Madrid produced best performance of the season, thanks to the reformation of their deadly front three

Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale celebrate v Sevilla
Image: Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale celebrate

It was interesting to see what happened at the Bernabeu. It was the best Real Madrid of the season. They had the BBC [Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo] up front and that has only happened 11 times this season in the league. Imagine if Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar had only joined forces 11 times this season, we may be seeing a story!

It feels like a good point in the season for Real. Everybody is fit and they are all playing well, especially Karim Benzema, Keylor Navas and Casemiro. It is a more balanced team and that is what Rafael Benitez was working towards, but he had everyone working against him.

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Ronaldo fluffed his lines as he tried to extend Real Madrid's lead against Sevilla from the penalty spot

Zinedine Zidane has found the same need to balance the team with Casemiro, the same need to get rid of Isco and James Rodriguez from his line-up and what you saw against Sevilla is the team he is going to use more often with Sergio Ramos and Pepe, who were absent at the weekend, at the back.

They are too far away to win the league, but they seem to have been lifted by the fact Wolfsburg is the next team they have to face in the Champions League. It probably means they will be in the semi-finals and then they are getting closer and closer to glory.

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Karim Benzema scored a stunning volley as Real Madrid opened the scoring against Sevilla

When that happens it seems everyone has shaken off their injury problems and are ready for battle. Real Madrid certainly looked that way against a Sevilla side that could have got something from the match at the Bernabeu, if Kevin Gameiro had scored the penalty they had missed, and then there was the disallowed goal that should have counted after Gameiro fired past Navas.

However, Real also had decisions go against them with Gareth Bale also have a goal wrongly chalked off. Sevilla caused Real problems for a while but the home side were playing at a very high level with key performances from Benzema, Navas, Casemiro and also Marcelo, who makes the team tick. For me he is as important as any forward in the team.

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