MADRID, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Spain's 2018/19 La Liga season reached its midway point this weekend. Here's our half-term review of what we have learned so far in this campaign.
1. Barcelona are the team to beat
FC Barcelona haven't been at their best in the last few weeks, but they still had enough to overcome Eibar 3-0 in the Camp Nou Stadium. Two more goals from Luis Suarez and the 400th league goal of Lionel Messi's career were enough to see Ernesto Valverde's side reach the halfway point of the season five points ahead of Atletico Madrid, and eight points clear of third-placed Sevilla.
Last week's Copa del Rey match showed that Valverde needs to be careful in how he rotates his squad, but the coach also deserves credit for maintaining faith in Philippe Coutinho. The Brazilian had been out of form and criticized in recent weeks, but played a lot better on Sunday and made the assist for Suarez to score the game's opening goal.
2. Solari and Isco: The controversy that won't go away
Real Madrid won 2-1 away at Real Betis thanks to a late Dani Ceballos free kick, which both the Betis defensive wall and keeper Pau Lopez should have dealt better with. Nevertheless, despite his side having just 25 percent of the ball, the win was a vindication for coach Santiago Solari, who dropped Marcelo and played with three central defenders.
Real Madrid had a host of injuries for the game, but even so, Spain international midfielder Isco never played a single minute, and the souring of relations between coach and player seems to be deteriorating every day. Prolonging the issue will not be good for either club or player, and the ideal solution would be for Isco to leave - unless the player expects the under-fire Solari to be gone sooner rather than later.
3. An unusually tough relegation battle.
18th-placed Rayo Vallecano's recent run of form has seen them reach the midway point of the campaign with 19 points: an average of a point a game, while Villarreal are second from bottom with 17 points.
Compare that with last season when none of the relegated teams reached 30 points, or the previous campaign when 32 points would have been enough to avoid the drop.
Although bottom club Huesca look doomed, everyone else in and around the relegation zone continues to take points on a regular basis, and staying up will be much tougher this year than in previous seasons, with every team from eighth-placed Girona down looking nervously over their shoulders.
4. Garitano working miracles at Bilbao
When Gaizka Garitano took over at Athletic Bilbao following Eduardo Berizzo's sacking six weeks ago, few could have anticipated that he would have affected such a change so quickly. Garitano replaced Berizzo with Athletic having taken just 11 points from 14 games, and they now have 22 points after 19 matches.
The former B-team boss has returned the Basque side to their traditional virtues of hard work and graft, and the results are easy to see. Garitano's five games in charge have seen Athletic concede just three goals, after having let it 22 across the previous 14 games. All of a sudden, life looks much brighter in Bilbao.
