Real Madrid CF 4-2 Athletic Club: Primera Division Match Report

Six goals, and the game was still open at the break before the hosts pulled clear. Real Madrid CF 4-2 Athletic Club finished as a four-goal home win that had been 2-1 at half-time — two Madrid goals in the opening 45 minutes, one back from the visitors, and then a second half in which the leaders extended their advantage rather than protected it. Real Madrid went through the closing rounds second on 83 points from 37 games with a +40 goal difference. Athletic were twelfth on 45 with -13, a mid-table side that had conceded a good deal more than it scored across the campaign.

The scoring pattern told the truth about both teams. Athletic scored twice at the Bernabéu, which few visiting sides from that band of the table manage, but conceding four in the process was entirely consistent with a goal difference of -13 accumulated across a full campaign. Madrid were never behind and never caught. It was a high-scoring, low-tension version of the fixture, which is broadly what happens when one side has its position settled and the other has nothing left to settle.

Very little, and that was rather the point. Barcelona had put the championship beyond reach with rounds to spare, so the title was mathematically decided before this match kicked off. Madrid's second place was equally secure: 83 points from 37 games left them fourteen above Villarreal in third, with too few fixtures remaining to change anything. The win was about goal difference, momentum and the professional obligation not to end a disappointing season badly.

Athletic's twelfth place was similarly fixed. On 45 points they sat a point above Rayo Vallecano and three behind Getafe in seventh, clear of a relegation fight being contested among clubs on 39 and 40 points. Scoring twice away at the runners-up was a respectable footnote to a campaign otherwise defined by the volume of goals they conceded.

Our pre-match call was Double Chance 1X (Real Madrid CF or Draw) at 1.42. That was close to the shortest price the market could reasonably offer on a fixture where the home side held a 38-point advantage in the table, and the selection never needed the draw half of its cover. Madrid led at the interval and won by two clear goals. The only reservation worth registering beforehand was that a side with nothing left to play for can be flat, and the six goals do suggest a looser contest than a 4-2 win by the stronger team implies. An away win, though, was never on the horizon. Verdict: won