Barcelona transform their season from trouble to a possible treble

It started against Atlético Madrid and it ended against Atlético Madrid, the circle completed at the Calderón. Three hundred and 64 days after Atlético went to Barcelona and won the league, Barcelona went to Atlético and won it back again, Leo Messi’s superb goal sufficient to take the title. But maybe 17 May was not the date, after all; maybe 11 January was. The night the crisis was contained, a collective catharsis that became the first day of the rest of their season. There was trouble then; there may be a treble now. Barcelona have won the league and two of their three remaining games are finals: against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey and Juventus in the European Cup.

The night of Sunday 11 January was at the end of a week that had begun with defeat at Anoeta, where Messi sat on the bench. The following day, he had missed the only training session of the year open to fans due to “gastroenteritis” just as, with unfortunate timing, an interview with Xavi Hernández was published in which he noted that “gastroenteritis” is the classic excuse given when something else is wrong. That same afternoon Andoni Zubizarreta, the sporting director, was sacked. Carles Puyol walked hours later. And most thought Luis Enrique would follow. One poll showed that 68% of fans wanted him the coach to do so.

His relationship with Messi under scrutiny, Luis Enrique admitted that his position had been weakened with Zubizarreta’s departure and he has taken every opportunity to praise his absent friend since. Jérémy Mathieu would later reveal that there had indeed been a clash between Messi and the coach on the training pitch. And although they were still ducking the issue then, although Luis Enrique avoided questions about ultimatums and claimed not to read the papers on doctors’ advice, he knew the board had begun sounding out replacements. Pretty soon, even they might be replaced: in that same week, presidential elections were called. “To reduce the tension,” Josep María Bartomeu said.

That might have helped; winning would have helped more. “Victories are the only things that can calm this wave,” Luis Enrique said. That night, Barcelona faced Atlético, league champions and a team they had not beaten in six matches last season. Lose and they might lose everything. But they did not lose: they beat Atlético on the pitch and everyone else off it. The match finished 3-1; in one night they had scored as many against Diego Simeone’s side as in the whole of the previous season. Messi, Neymar and Luis Suárez got them, the first time the trio had all scored in the same game, but not the last. And after the match, Messi appeared again. “Stop throwing shit,” he said.

There was something different about Barcelona: aggressive, driven, hyperactive, their best performance of the season. Maybe they had won thanks to the crisis, not because of it. Confronted by their own collapse, handed an external enemy against whom they could cohere, a point to prove, a last chance perhaps, they had pulled back from the abyss. The crisis management had been effective; the question was whether it would be lasting. Luis Enrique was asked afterwards if he thought the crisis had gone. “No,” he said, “next time we lose it will be back.”

It wasn’t back because they did not lose, not often. “Everything changed,” Messi later admitted. Players may have still had their doubts, they may not have always appreciated the work done by their manager, but things were falling into place and they were certainly fitter than ever before. Compromises were made, differences were diminished, the relationship reconstructed. With victory came union, a shared purpose. “We believed at difficult moments,” Javier Mascherano said on Sunday. “We overcame adversity. We laughed when we had to laugh and suffered when we had to suffer.” His message on Sunday night was important; his message that night, following the 3-1 win, was even more vital. The Chief playing chief.

Beating Atlético then was the start; beating them now was the end. Barcelona won six in a row, lost once, won six in a row again, then drew one, then won six in a row again. They went an entire vuelta, playing every team in the league, winning 17, drawing one and losing one. Then it came to Atlético again, and they won at the Calderón to clinch the title: 52 of 57 points. And that was just the league; they also reached the Copa del Rey final, beating Atlético twice more en route – from no wins in six last season to four wins in four this. And they reached the Champions League final in Berlin, winning in Manchester and Paris and beating Bayern, a game of powerful symbolism.

Since beating Atlético in January, Barcelona have won 29 and lost only two in 32: that league match against Málaga and last week’s defeat in Munich, a defeat of little consequence. “If you lose, they kill you; if you play OK or well, they still criticise,” Luis Enrique said. Even as they were winning, there were debates about the style, about whether they were really that good. But slowly they slipped away. Beating Madrid helped; the way they won in Manchester and Paris helped even more. By the time Pep Guardiola described them as the best counterattacking team in the world, it did not sound like such a dirty word because they also counterattacked, they did not only counterattack. “Our games don’t look like handball any more,” Gerard Piqué said.

There is a photograph from that Atlético game that will probably come to define this season: Messi, Suárez and Neymar running off celebrating together, an arm around each other’s shoulders. On Sunday night, Suárez was forced to sit out with a calf injury but when the final whistle went he ran on like the rest of them, wearing his shirt, piling into the celebratory circle. Another picture was taken: Messi, Neymar and Suárez again, celebrating the title, secured with their 115th goal this season. “I have never seen a trio like it,” Piqué said this week. It seemed obvious now but at that point back in January, no one else had really seen it yet.

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Suárez had arrived late, not making his debut until week nine. He has 16 league goals now; his goal against Atlético that night in January was only his second. It took a while. Suárez admitted that Messi had encouraged his shift of position back into the middle. The three men, who genuinely get on well, compliment each other perfectly. Suárez has been exactly what they needed, scoring the winner in the clásico which set up this title challenge and embodying the shift in style. Neymar has over 20 goals more than last season. As for Messi, well, he’s Messi. 54 goals, 30 assists and that surreal sensation that however good the stats are they’re still not good enough.

Around them, the team has got ever stronger. They have kept 23 clean sheets, conceding just 19 this season. “The numbers say much,” Luis Enrique noted. The midfield have started to dominate too. At times it felt like this season was not about the midfielders, victims of a more direct style, running more than they were passing. But the feeling in these final weeks is the complete opposite. Here, they were at the heart of it once more.

Cava was sprayed. Players shouted and bounded up and down. There may be two finals left, and there will be no open top bus parade until the end, but Barcelona’s players and staff insisted that they would be celebrating this properly and supporters headed down the Ramblas with fireworks and flags. Outside the Calderón, the team bus lurched back and forwards awkwardly trying to squeeze its way through a tiny gap. Perhaps they should have let Messi drive. At 10pm, it finally edged its way uneasily onto the M30 and set off towards Barajas airport and from there to El Prat, where more fans were waiting.

On board, Suárez was contemplating his first real league title and he was not alone. This was a first for Neymar too, and for Mathieu and for Ivan Rakitic. “I can’t describe how I feel,” Mathieu said. “My throat hurts from celebrating,” Rakitic smiled. “This is very important to me … I don’t know about the others. Xavi, Iniesta, Messi – they have won lots of titles.”

This was Xavi’s 23rd title for his club; Messi has already won seven leagues in a 10-year career, plus three European Cups; Iniesta scored the winning goal in the World Cup final. Alongside Piqué, Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets and Pedro, they might even win a second treble, something no other club in European football has ever done. But you need only see them bound past underneath the stand at the Calderón and out through the iron doors at the north end to the bus to see that it mattered to them, really mattered. Not least because four months ago, few thought it was really possible. But then that night Barcelona beat Atlético Madrid. And on Sunday night they beat them again.

Talking points

And so here we are … with one week to go, the title is decided and so is one of the relegation spots (Córdoba are down), but pretty much everything else is still open.

Atlético (77 points) and Valencia (74) are still fighting for third place and direct qualification for the Champions League. Valencia could yet not reach the Champions League at all: they’re fourth with 74 points and Sevilla are just one point behind them in fifth (on 73). Next up: Málaga v Sevilla, Granada v Atlético, Almería v Valencia.

Two-nil down, Athletic Bilbao won 3-2, with Iñaki Williams getting a 93rd-minute winner, making him the first black player to ever score in La Liga for Athletic and meaning that they are well placed to take seventh place, very likely to be the final Europa League slot. They’re on 52 points with Málaga on 50 and Espanyol on 49. Next up: Málaga v Sevilla, Athleticv Villarreal, Celta v Espanyol (Villarreal are guaranteed sixth).

Granada’s miracle continues. They won 3-0 at Real Sociedad, their third win in a row under their new manager, José Ramón Sandoval, having previously won just four in 33 games all season. Meanwhile, Eibar could only draw 1-1 at Getafe and Almería were beaten by Sevilla, despite having taken the lead. Deportivo’s win against Levante gives them a chance of survival but their opponents emerged safe for another season. It’s not done by any means, particularly when you look at the fixtures waiting each team. Eibar (against Córdoba) and Deportivo (against Barcelona) face teams with nothing to play for, although visiting the Camp Nou won’t be easy for the latter, while relegation battlers and third place chasers meet in the other two games at the bottom. Going into the final week, it looks like this: Córdoba 20 and down; Almería 32 (with the possibility of having three points deducted still); Eibar 32; Deportivo 34; Granada 34. Next up: Granada v Atlético, Eibar v Córdoba, Almería v Valencia, Barcelona v Deportivo.

Results: Atlético 0-1 Barcelona, Espanyol 1-4 Real Madrid, Córdoba 1-2 Rayo, Villarreal 2-1 Málaga, Valencia 1-1 Celta, Sevilla 2-1 Almería, Getafe 1-1 Eibar, Elche 2-3 Athletic, Deportivo 2-0 Levante, Real Sociedad 0-3 Granada.