Barcelona now know that a solitary point from their match at Levante will confirm them as Spanish champions due to Real Madrid’s comprehensive defeat of Getafe. A thumping 4-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu ensured that the men from Catalunya would have to wait an extra 24 hours to confirm the inevitable.
As tradition under manager Pep Guardiola dictates, the entire squad of players and all the coaching staff will make the trip south in anticipation of a third consecutive Primera Division crown. Despite the odds being stacked firmly in the Catalans’ favour, the manager was quick to extinguish any notions that his side would have it easy in Valencia, “We need to be well prepared mentally because you have to win points, they don’t give them away”, he said.
Inevitably, as the current crop of stars sweep all and sundry before them, yet more parallels are going to be made with the ‘Dream Team’ of the early 1990s. As a member of that particular squad, Guardiola gave his take on the comparisons being drawn between the two teams, “You can never equal what they did because they were generation that ended that long period without winning, and created this continuity both in style and titles”, he declared.
Despite the ground-breaking feats of Johan Cruyff’s team, there can be no doubting that the outfit assembled by Guardiola is one of the finest Barcelona teams to grace a football field. Both individual and scoring records have tumbled this season with such a nonchalant ease and there could yet be more to come from this remarkable group of players. Three wins from the final three fixtures will see La Blaugrana over the one hundred point mark and a win against Deportivo la Coruna in the final match of the campaign at the Camp Nou will see them break a thirty-seven year club record with sixteen consecutive wins.
Guardiola also expressed his surprise at the gap between Barca and Real Madrid at the top of table. The eight point margin between the two sides is remarkable especially considering that this season came off the back of a World Cup. Key members from both teams made up the majority of the Spanish national team that went all the way as well as other players like Mesut
