On Saturday, Barcelona were crowned La Liga Champions for the eighth time in the last eleven years. They wrapped up their league title with a nervy, questionable performance at home against Levante, 1-0. But despite what won it, Barcelona pulled off another dominating performance winning La Liga to set sights on another treble.
La Liga Weekend: Barca Crowned Champions
Barcelona 1-0 Levante
This was certainly not the best game Barcelona played all season, but they won’t care. They played a promising first half with Philippe Coutinho doing his best to get on the scoresheet. The Brazilian’s torrid season did not get any better this weekend. After a scoreless first half where he had some good efforts on goal, Coutinho was subbed at halftime for Lionel Messi.
Now, there is no reason to make a big deal out of him getting subbed; with Liverpool on Wednesday, and Messi doing the replacing. But it has to be frustrating for Coutinho, a great player who has really struggled this season. Finally given a chance to be the creative fulcrum, he was playing well before having the rug pulled out from under him.
Fifteen minutes after Messi came on, he scored Barcelona’s opening goal. From there it strangely seemed Barcelona were content to defend the rest of the game. Which they did, keeping Levante out of their goal and winning 1-0.
Barca’s Best
It’s easy to think this Barcelona side are team carried on the shoulders of Lionel Messi. He scored 34 goals & dished 13 assists in 32 La Liga appearances. Raw numbers like that stick out like Spain flags at the Camp Nou. But this team is built on a core of reliable professionals, that allow Lionel Messi to shine as bright as he can.
It starts with Marc-Andre ter Stegen in goal for Barcelona. The 26-year-old keeper is either the best or second best (next to Jan Oblak) in the world at his position. But he is so far beyond any keeper at playing with his feet.
Premier League keepers like Ederson and Allison Becker get a ton of plaudits, but neither can keep up with ter Stegen’s passing array. It allows Barcelona’s build up to be so crisp, breaking teams down so easily from the back.
As the season went on ter Stegen’s great play allowed the defence to find its footing. And it all came down to new signing Clement Lenglet. Lenglet was signed from Sevilla in the summer as insurance, a release clause too low to pass up. But after Samuel Umtiti went down with a knee injury, Lenglet stepped into his place incredibly.
He is not as quick or agile as Umtiti, but Lenglet is a great centre-back in his own right. Barcelona barely missed Umtiti’s recovery speed because of Lenglet’s outstanding positional defence. He formed a wonderful partnership with Gerard Pique that stabilized Barcelona’s defence after early season question marks.
Going Forward
However strong the defence gets, joint third best this season, Barcelona will always be about performance with the ball. The tune of 86 league goals in 35 matches does have a pretty nice ring to it. And it is always nice to see Lionel Messi in the lead for the golden boot. But this season, their best attack has come from the three central midfield players.
Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic have been constants in the Barcelona midfield for at least five years now. But this was set to be the first season that either played without Andres Iniesta in a Barcelona shirt. “The Illiusionista” left for Japan last summer, leaving a giant hole in Barcelona’s creative midfield.
In this case, it was another shrewd, under market signing that gave Barcelona the midfielder they need. 22-year-old Arthur Melo has the perfect playing style for the Barcelona midfield. He is calm, cool, and has the hesitation in his game that made this Barcelona midfield so iconic. He stepped in and instantly gave Barcelona the control they had been lacking since Xavi Hernandez left.
Champions
In the end, Barcelona have been crowned La Liga Champions once again. It is their 26th league title, the tenth since Messi’s debut, and eighth in the last eleven years. Barcelona now sit just eight league titles behind Real Madrid in the all-time standings. Imagine the look on a Madrid supporters’ face if foretold this about ten years ago.
But make no mistake about it, Barcelona are intent on catching Madrid. Real Madrid have always been the dominant force in Spain as if they ever stopped reminding us. But with Messi at the helm, Barcelona could knock some of that arrogance of for good.
Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Real Madrid
Speak of the devil; Real Madrid put out probably their worst performance of an awful season when they lost 1-0 away to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. The three points take Rayo from 20th place to 19th, but this game is all about the Madridistas. Zinedine Zidane said they failed to do even the most basic things required to win a professional football match. He was referring to running, defending and playing as a team.
Madrid did none of these things in the first La Liga loss to Rayo since the 90s. On the weekend where Barcelona have been crowned league champions, this was an unacceptable display. Once again it was the same problems from all this season that came to roost in this game. Gareth Bale played 90 uneventful minutes, the defence struggled, with Marcelo & Jesus Vallejo making the biggest errors.
These results make Zidane’s plan for a summer clean out all the more intriguing. This team has not gotten any better since Zizou returned to the helm. Madrid are 2-2-2 since he returned, nothing close to the standard. With the rumours swirling about Paul Pogba and Eden Hazard it’s starting to look like they will not be enough.
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