Madrid  - Two weeks ago everybody in Spain agreed that the battle for the Spanish Liga title was all over.

After breaking all the records in the first half of the season, Josep Guardiola's brilliant Barcelona were 12 points ahead of Real Madrid.

Samuel Eto'o, Lionel Messi, Xavi and company were breaking all the points and goals records, while waltzing through each game with elegance and authority.

Real, in contrast, were battling out a series of tight, ugly wins, and new coach Juande Ramos was taking criticism for his dour, cautious counter-attacking style.

Barca's run of 10 straight wins ended a week ago with a somewhat fortunate 2-2 draw away to Betis.

And on Saturday Guardiola's stuttering side suffered their first defeat since August, 2-1 at home to lowly crosstown rivals Espanyol.

To make matters worse for Barca, Real were slaughtering Betis 6-1. It was the whites' ninth straight win, and one that confirms that Ramos can serve up good football as well as acceptable results.

Real are now just seven points behind Barca, and the Madrid media are convinced - or at least want to seem convinced - that their team can overtake the Catalans.

Barca playmaker Xavi and club president Joan Laporta both nervously referred, last week, to a painful precedent: two years ago Real reduced Barca's seven-point lead and ended up snatching the title on the direct results system, after the "big two" had ended up tied on points.

Real closing the gap on Barca is front-page news in practically every Madrid newspaper on Sunday.

Conservative daily ABC claims that "Now there is a league (battle)", while La Razon observes that Real are now "only seven points behind."

Sports daily AS, most of whose readers are Real fans, has the aggressive headline "Get into them!", while rival daily Marca paraphrases Barack Obama by saying "Yes, they can!"

Online polls taken by both sports paper reveal that 64 per cent of AS readers and 68 per cent of Marca readers believe that Real can still win the league.

Madrid radio station Cadena COPE claimed the injury suffered by Barca left-back Eric Abidal on Saturday - he will be out for two months after tearing the abductor muscle in his right thigh - will "severely weaken the Barca defence."

Television channel TeleMadrid, for its part, claims that another "Samuel Eto'o crisis" could be "on its way."

Last week the explosive Eto'o irritated Barca fans by saying that he was really a Mallorca fan - he played for the islanders from 2000 to 2004 - and that "I only work for Barcelona." He also hinted that he might leave for free when his Barca contract expires in 2010.

On Saturday Guardiola raised eyebrows by taking league top scorer Eto'o off 25 minutes from time, and the little African left the field infuriated.

Barca fans have still not forgiven Eto'o for his bizarre public outburst in February 2007 against team-mate Ronaldinho and coach Frank Rijkaard, an outburst which contributed to the disintegration of Rijkaard's team - and to Real whittling away Barca's seven-point lead.

Could lightning be about to strike Barca again, two years later? The Real fans and the Madrid media are certainly hoping so. dpa