The Catalan club won on Sunday at Espanyol Barcelona (4-2) and secured its first La Liga title since 2019.
FC Barcelona holds its 27th title of champion of Spain. Winner on the lawn of Espanyol Barcelona (4-2), Sunday, May 14, Barça is guaranteed to win La Liga, while there are still four days to play at the end of the season. With 14 points ahead of their runners-up, Real Madrid, the Catalan team cannot be joined and win the Spanish championship for the first time since 2019.
This title, the Blaugranas obtained it by beating their local rival, the other club of Barcelona, Espanyol. During this meeting, marked by the goal of the French Jules Koundé in the second period, it was Robert Lewandowski who particularly distinguished himself. The Pole, top scorer in La Liga (20 goals) ahead of Karim Benzema, scored twice and was one of Barça’s strong men throughout the season.
An iron defense throughout the season
If the former Bayern Munich striker managed to adapt quickly to the Spanish league and was Barça’s main attacking threat throughout the season, it is also and above all thanks to his iron defense that the Catalan club became champion. The Barcelona side conceded two goals against Espanyol on Sunday night, which had only happened to them twice since the start of the La Liga season.
With 13 goals conceded in 34 games, Barça has the best defense of the five major European championships. This solidity is one of the hallmarks of Xavi’s FC Barcelona. Already crowned eight times as a player with the Catalan club, where he played between 1998 and 2015, the Spaniard obtained his very first La Liga title as a coach on Sunday.
Arrived on the Barça bench in November 2021, Xavi is the architect of the new Barça sacred on Sunday and wins his first major title as a coach, after having nevertheless won trophies with the Qatari club of Al-Sadd and the Super Cup of Spain against Real Madrid last January. But it was against the Merengues that his team was heavily beaten in the semi-finals of the King’s Cup. In the European Cup, Xavi’s Barça did no better, eliminated by Manchester United in the knockout stages of the Europa League.
The trophy awarded on the next day
This coronation is a breath of fresh air for Barça, which has been experiencing economic difficulties for years – to the point of letting Lionel Messi slip away to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2021 – and legal scandals. The club is still embroiled in a case of alleged corruption of referees and will have to do without the important financial receipts of the Camp Nou next season. The mythical stadium of the Barcelona club will indeed be under construction and the first team will have to play its matches at Montjuic.
But four years after their last La Liga title, Barça will be able to savor when they return to the heights of Spanish football. He is approaching, with this 27th coronation, the 35 championships won by Real Madrid in its history. The Barcelona players can celebrate their title next Saturday at Camp Nou when they receive the Spanish champions trophy before the match against Real Sociedad.