Four things we learned from Spain's matchday 30

MADRID, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The return to football following the international break has once again allowed us to draw some conclusions about the Spanish Liga Santander; here are some things we learned this weekend in Spain's matchday 30.

1. Don't forget Busquets

No doubt most people will point to Leo Messi and his spectacular equalizing goal away to Sevilla as one of the key moments of the weekend, and they would be right to do so. However, Barca's draw in the Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium illustrated not just how important the Argentinean is to Ernesto Valverde's side, but how important Sergio Busquets is.

Busquets missed the game with a broken bone in his foot and without his steadying influence in front of the defense and to help them build from the back, Barca looked more open at the back as Sevilla to found spaces in the Barca midfield and hit them on the break.

Messi and Suarez eventually saved the day for Barca, with better finishing Sevilla should have put the game to bed long before.

Messi makes the headlines, but Busquets is also vital.

2 Champions League or bust for Real Madrid

Although Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema both scored in Real Madrid's comfortable win away to Las Palmas, the result should not blind fans to the fact that the game showed Real Madrid have just one ambition this season: to win the Champions League.

Zinedine Zidane made that clear when he left Cristiano Ronaldo, Tony Kroos, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Isco and Dani Carvajal back in Madrid, while putting Theo Hernandez and Jesus Vallejo in the side and giving minutes to Marcos Llorente.

The big guns will all be back against Juventus in the Champions League in midweek, perhaps the most interesting thing will be to see whether Bale and Benzema are too.

3 Atletico squad looks very thin

Atletico Madrid closed the gap at the top of the table to nine points behind FC Barcelona on Sunday as they ground out yet another 1-0 win (their 11th of the season so far in the league), but a look down his team-sheet before the game must have had Atletico coach Diego Simeone worried.

Atletico had four first team players injured and two suspended for the game leaving Simeone with just 13 first team players available.

Atletico began the season with a squad of 20 players, which is already on the thin side, and although Diego Costa and Vitolo were available from January, Yannick Carrasco and Nico Gaitan moved to China, while Miguel Angel Moya joined Real Sociedad in February.

Given that a matchday squad is 18 players that leaves Atletico no margin for injuries or suspension; hardly ideal for a side still playing in the league and in Europe.

4 Who wants to qualify for the Europa League?

Several things look to be virtually resolved this season in Spain: the title, the top four and who will be relegated, leaving the battle for fifth, sixth and seventh place as the main topic of uncertainty this campaign perhaps seven sides in with a chance of qualifying for the Europa League.

Villarreal and Sevilla have a slight advantage over the pack, but none of the challengers for Europe were able to win over the weekend (Getafe and Betis play each other on Monday night). Villarreal had the worst result as they lost to bottom of the table Malaga, while Sevilla played well at home to Barcelona, but the battle for Europe is starting to turn into a sprint between snails and it says a lot that fifth placed Villarreal are a full 15 points behind fourth place Valencia. Enditem