Real Madrid looked as if they would have the league sown up before the World Cup kicked off at one point on Saturday, but Robert Lewandowski didn’t move to Spain for the ham and generous spirit measures.
His goal and Girona’s superb performance in the Santiago Bernabeu mean there’s just a point in it at the top.
Atletico, meanwhile, are slip-sliding away and were undone by another late-late moment of drama that went against them.
We also saw Raphinha roused and Romeu ruling the roost. Oh and there was a first ever red card for a player who was close to finishing his career without one.
Sportsmail rounds up all the things we learned from another round of pulsating LaLiga action.
A weekend is a long time in La Liga
At about 11pm local time on Saturday night Xavi was in a bad place – his team were laboring to a draw away at Valencia and defenders Eric Garcia and Jules Kounde had both gone off injured.
Then things took a turn for the better. First Robert Lewandowski scored his 18th goal of the season for Barcelona to win the game. Then on Sunday Real Madrid dropped two points against Girona. So Xavi is back to being one point behind Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
Then came the news that Kounde and Garcia should be fit for next weekend, good news with Andreas Christensen and Ronald Araujo both out.
Feed the man who replaced the GOAT and he will score
Not quite as catchy as the song Manchester City fans used to sing about Shaun Goater, but it fits for Robert Lewandowski.
Replacing Messi is hard enough but he needs service. He got three decent passes on Saturday night and buried the third.
He has scored 18 goals now in a team that often has not played well, think what he might do if they start performing.
Raphinha is up for the battle
It’s been a slow start for the former Leeds winger but it was his late cross for Lewandowski to score Barcelona’s winner and it was his best moment yet for his new club.
A poor game from Ousmane Dembele and the Brazilian’s assist might shift him forward ahead of the Frenchman in Xavi’s thinking – it’s a long season and it’s how it ends for Raphinha, not how it started that counts.
It’s never too late to start getting sent off
After 740 games Toni Kroos was finally dismissed on Sunday afternoon in Madrid’s draw with Girona.
Kroos often finishes game without even knowing who the referee was, but he saw plenty of him on Sunday.
He deserved his red too. Two definite yellows and the first meant Yan Couto had to be taken off injury.
VAR is more trouble than it’s worth
Girona’s equalising penalty came from a handball that never was. The ball strikes Marco Asensio in the chest then maybe touches his right arm, which is close to his body.
He makes a strange ‘unnatural’ movement with his left arm but the ball bounces straight out and not at an angle as it would have done if it had touched his left arm.
The point is not that Madrid were robbed, but that VAR pokes its nose in where it’s not needed.
Still, on Monday morning video and still images from various angles were casting doubt. And there is an angle that makes the incident look like a penalty.
If after 12 hours and thousand replays there is still doubt, why not just go with the referee’s initial decision and get on with the game?
Oriol Romeu better than Busquets
It’s only right we call it the ‘Busquets role’ after so many years in which he has been perfect at playing it.
But right now there are several midfielders doing it better and the former Southampton midfielder is one of those at Girona.
He wasn’t the only bright spark on show as the Catalan side matched Madrid pass for pass but he looks like one of the shrewdest signings of the season.
The new-manager bounce doesn’t last long if the ball is flat
Sevilla are the flat ball here.
When Jorge Sampaoli replaced Julen Lopetegui there was a reaction in the next few games and some jumped to the hasty conclusion that the season was saved.
They lost at home at the weekend and it’s now one win, two draws and two defeats in his first five games. Little has really changed.
Don’t talk to Diego Simeone about late drama
Last Wednesday night in Europe his team went out of the Champions League because on 99 minutes Yannick Carrasco had a penalty saved against Bayer Leverkusen.
Fast forward to Saturday his team lost 3-2 to Cadiz because Ruben Sobrino got a 98th minute winner.
Joao Felix bites back
Left out of the starting line-up by Diego Simeone for nine games straight Joao Felix climbed off the bench to score twice on Saturday.
He was probably fortunate to be credited with the first such was the deflection that his volley took off of Luis Hernandez but there was no doubt about the brilliant second.
He had wanted to take the penalty Carrasco missed three days before but had been denied. Is he now going to start demanding responsibility? Saturday suggested the answer is yes.
Atletico can’t defend without Simeone’s favourite double-act
When Jose Gimenez and Stefan Savic are together in the centre of defence Atletico are hard to score against – just five goals conceded in their last seven together.
When one of them is missing it’s a lot easier – five conceded in two games. Theo Bongonda scored against them after just 27 seconds on Saturday.
It maybe doesn’t help that Simeone switches to three central defenders when he is missing one of his two favourites. It gives him the quantity but not the quality.
