Keep the champagne on ice
What happens when the runaway league leaders suddenly forget how to score?
FC Barcelona are 11 points clear at the top.
They’ve conceded nine league goals in 29 games, including just two – a penalty and an own goal – in front of their own fans. They’ve beaten 18 of the 20 teams they’ve faced, and they have nothing but their league to focus on as the season heads into the home straight.
It’s theirs. The LaLiga title is theirs.
But what would happen – psychologically, physically, emotionally – if this run carried on?
An embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid, a goalless draw with Girona, and now another with Getafe. What if they slipped again next weekend, against the league’s most in-form team? And then again, the week after?
It’s far-fetched, and it’s very easy to get carried away with a poor performance. But Barcelona were bad on Sunday afternoon. Xavi mentioned the pitch, others will point to the injury list, but against a stubborn, physical side, the title-chasers could muster little to pull apart a team at the bottom, fighting for their lives.
A stalemate at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez isn’t a disaster in isolation; it’s a stadium almost synonymous with persistence and grit in the glaring Madrileño sun.
However, following a third-consecutive Barcelona blank, the club are now on their longest goalless run since 2008, having drawn 0-0 consecutively for the first time in LaLiga since 1993.
A 22nd clean sheet of the season was barely commemorated, as another lacklustre attacking display set the faintest of alarm bells ringing.
Barcelona will be fine, but next weekend’s blockbuster meeting with Atlético Madrid now holds an extra layer of intrigue.
Diego Simeone’s side are the best team in Spain at the moment, on a rampaging run of six consecutive wins and 13 league matches unbeaten. Antoine Griezmann, having joined Los Colchoneros from Barça for a cut-price fee, has probably been the best player in the division. Imagine if he came back to bite.
After that, Xavi’s side face Rayo Vallecano, who are still unbeaten against Catalan sides since their promotion two seasons ago. With two wins and a draw against the region’s giants under Andoni Iraola, a trip to Southern Madrid is another tricky assignment for a stuttering side.
It’s probably nothing, but it would certainly be something if Barcelona couldn’t hold onto what is surely their crown.
No hay Liga, ahora mismo. But Xavi has some thinking to do.