Barcelona fluff their lines in La Liga

Well, who would’ve thought it?

A team, in Granada, that on the previous 24 occasions they’d visited the Camp Nou they’d lost, coming away with a victory in a game that Barcelona needed to win to put them on top of the La Liga table for the first time in the 2020/21 campaign.

The Andalusians executed their game plan to the letter and got exactly what they deserved.Ronald Koeman is likely to be seething, and not just because he was sent off in the second half.

Frankly, it was a pathetic performance from the home side against a team that were content to stick 10 men behind the ball and only break out sporadically when there was space to run into and a numerical advantage to be had.

When you consider that the winner was scored by a 39-year-old in Jorge Molina, that tells you all you need to know about how poorly Barca played.

Perhaps complacency got the better of them.

After all, with Samuel Umtiti unfit and out of form, there was no real reason to put him into Barca’s back line. Clement Lenglet was rested, but Koeman could’ve replaced him with Ronald Araujo.

Only one or two players stood out for the hosts and they too only did so in flashes. It was such a disappointing showing in so many ways.

What it means for Barca of course is that the destination of the title is no longer in their hands.

At the very least they have to win all five games that they have left, and even that may not be enough, as Real Madrid could stay above them by winning the five they’ve got to play.

The only saving grace for Barca is if they can get 15 points from 15, and hope Real’s Champions League mission derails their domestic title ambitions.

Zinedine Zidane’s side have been flagging of late themselves, but always seem to get the results when they need them.

In any event, the blaugranes really shouldn’t worry about anyone other than themselves now.

They’ve got enough experienced players to know what’s required from this point, and if they can rekindle the spark from most of the games they’ve played in 2021, they’ve still a chance of making this a remarkable season.

It’s been seven years since we’ve seen the Spanish league title won on the final day of the season, and we can’t discount that from happening again this time around.

To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com