Barcelona are the champions of Spain after clinching the title for the 29th time with a 2-0 win against Real Madrid in El Clasico.
The prize and motivation were as clear as the sunset after a beautiful day: a draw or a win and Barcelona would take the La Liga title in a game against Madrid for the first time in their 127-year history.
The Catalans are now 14 points clear of their greatest rivals with three games to play. Barcelona could hit 100 points with three wins and 100 goals with three per game. Only two Spanish teams have managed 100 points – Madrid in 2012 and Barca a year later.
Real Madrid are a mess. In-fighting has split them as a team, player power is damaging the club and egos are rampant. Will Jose Mourinho, 63, be the iron fist to restore order next season? And how many of their stellar talents will remain?
Little of that will concern Barcelona right now after they retained their title. They were up for it.
“The chosen ones for the mission,” tweeted Barcelona’s official website, with a list which read Joan Garcia, Cancelo, Cubarsi, Gavi, Ferran, Pedri, Rashford, Fermin, Gerard Martiin, Olmo and Eric. Lamine Yamal, Barcelona’s best player, is out injured.
Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Kounde and Frenkie de Jong were on the bench.
A bigger story has been unfolding at Real Madrid; numerous fights in training, their captain, Fede Valverde, sanctioned and told to rest after a fight with Aurelien Tchouameni. Miltoa, Guller, Rodrygo, Ceballos, Carvajal and Mbappe were missing from the starting XI. Most through injury, others as collateral for the chaos at the club.
After a memorial for the father of Hansi Flick, a moving tribute that moved the Barca head coach to tears, and the singing of the Catalan national anthem before that, the game started.
Fans sang "If you don’t jump then you’re Madrid" and all but the 400 Madrid fans in the 62,000 restricted capacity crowd did exactly that. More offensive songs were also sung, resulting in a warning to the crowd. The mood had been febrile outside the stadium, when Barcelona fans threw objects at their team’s bus, thinking it belonged to Madrid. A window was broken, as was one on the Madrid bus.
The emphasis shifted after eight minutes when Marcus Rashford, playing on the right of the attack, claimed his best moment so far in a Barcelona shirt, striking a right footed free-kick over Madrid’s wall into the top left corner. The celebrations which followed did the goal and its importance justice. Rashford’s numbers have impressed this season with 15 goals and 14 assists in all competitions from 47 games – and he didn’t start in many of those.
He’s not a star player, he’s not even a guaranteed starter, but he’s respected by teammates and more popular with Barca fans than he was at Manchester United before his loan move to Spain. Four goals in his past six matches are doing his prospects of making the move permanent no harm.
It was 2-0 after 17 minutes, Ferran Torres with a smart finish after Pau Cubarsi instigated the move, Dani Olmo assisting Torres with a flick. Torres then ran to his boss Flick in the Barca dugout to celebrate.
Rashford could have made it 3-0 on 38 minutes after running onto an Eric Garcia ball, but saw his shot pushed wide when Fermin Lopez was waiting in the centre.
Frenkie De Jong and Raphinha replaced Olmo and Rashford. The game became a celebration, with each substitute cheered on and off and Madrid appearing glad to avoid a hammering after a difficult week. It can’t have been fun hearing "Ole! Ole!" every time a Barcelona player passed the ball, with Raphinha urging even more support on a night of celebration.
It is Barcelona’s 29th league title, still short of Madrid’s 36, but the Catalans lead the race this century with 12 to Madrid’s nine.
"Campione, ole, ole, ole!" hollered the crowd long before the players did the same and fireworks lit up the night sky as the trophy was lifted. It was well deserved.
“I'll tell you a story. It’s not an ordinary matter; it’s serious,” said Flick. “This morning, my mother called me and told me that my father had died. I was wondering whether I should tell the squad or not. They are like family to me, so I told them. I will never forget what they did after that. It was unbelievable. I will never forget it. I’m so happy and proud of everyone. Every player, every member of the staff, everyone at the club. To me, this is a real family.
“At the start of the season, I spoke about ego,” added Flick. “I told the players that they had to keep that out of the dressing room. If they have a ‘biggest star’ mentality, we would never reach our highest level.
“As I’ve always said, the second year is always harder than the first. Perhaps we don’t score like we did last season, but we’ve defended much better, especially at the end of this season. I’m delighted to see the progress the team has done.
“If you don't win titles at a big club, your season is a failure. Of course, I have been dreaming about winning everything here. We can make it a reality next season, we have to aim for that. We'll carry on with the same winning mentality and mindset.”
