However, I believe we are going to end up seeing Real Madrid still end up winning this game, they are just too good not to. They are also close to Barcelona, they can't lose points now, they need to win every game until they catch up to Barcelona, otherwise the points gap would grow and Barcelona will play Alaves, which they should be winning.
Maintaining a 3 points margin at this time must still be done by Madrid because after all this can be an important situation to keep the competition under control for La Liga especially now that Barcelona is still in pretty good shape in the Flick era so Madrid must still try to get 3 points in every match that is done.
I am honestly not sure if Hansi Flick will be able to hold onto the first position of the table for a long period of time. I still suspect that La Blaugrana is not going to be as consistent as they should be. At least not consistent enough for being the champion of La Liga. Actually expecting the new coach Flick to win the La Liga title is probably a little too much to ask. I am not saying that it is impossible. But what I am saying is looking at the circumstances and also the finances of Barça, it does look really hard.
Also looking at the squad of Carlo Ancelotti, one cannot help but think that Los Blancos is going to be the La Liga winner. But I guess we have seen strange things happen in football. So even though I think The Catalan Giants have less chances to win the La Liga title, however the chance is never zero.
By the way, first half done, result:
Madrid 1 - 0 Villarreal