What a brilliant climax to the La Liga season! Back in March the Spanish Primera Division this season was labeled as boring for lack of competitiveness at the top of the table inspite of the presence of top clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in the top flight with the Catalans holding a healthy 9 point lead at one time and sweeping aside teams at will. Then came the el clasico that turned out to be a start of a poor run of 3 straight defeats for the Catalan giants with the title evenly poised for the last 5 weeks as they were now level on points with Atletico (the former ahead on head to head record) and Real right at their tails with 1 point less. Elimination in the quarters of the Champions League at the hands of Atletico added salt to the wounds. At that stage, Barcelona looked really worn out and it looked certain that they were going to drop points again thus letting the in-form Madrid clubs catch up. But all those doubts were put to rest courtesy of some brilliance from this season European Golden Shoe winner Luis Suarez as they won all their remaining games to clinch their 24th Liga title. If we look at it, Real and Atletico Madrid were lucky to be in contention for the last few weeks given they were way behind at one stage. The kind of form the Catalans were in (the 39 match unbeaten streak that ended in the el clasico) made it all look completely impossible. The 2-1 defeat in the clasico looked like a minor blip and it seemed certain that they will bounce back against Real Sociedad(at Anoeta where Barcelona haven’t won in a very long time) and Valencia. But, both games ended in shocking defeats for the Catalunya club, thus bringing the Madrid clubs back in business. Although, credit has to be given to both Real and Atletico for fighting right till the death. The biggest reason why Barcelona are the champions is simple- they were consistent for most parts of the season. After a slow start till October, the Catalans didn’t look back despite the early season injury to Lionel Messi for a few weeks, as they hammered almost every opposition coming their way including Real Madrid who were battered 4-0 in the first clasico of the season. They played some of their best football (the 39 match unbeaten run speaks for itself) with the forward trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar doing the job consistently for them between this period that started from mid October and lasted till April. While they were sweeping aside all teams in all competitions, Real Madrid were facing a crisis of their own. The los blancos struggled even against small opponents, the team looked completely imbalanced with the injuries also playing their part. Adding to these woes, most of the senior players looked fed up of then coach Rafa Benitez’ style of play thus leading to the Spaniard’s sacking. Zinedine Zidane’s appointment made an impact as the players looked happy and performed better but finding the right balance was always going to take time and by then, there weren’t many games left and even after the big slump in form for Barcelona the Whites could only fall just short even after registering a 12 game winning streak. As far as Atletico is concerned, even they were never in the race for the title until the slump. Diego Simeone’s men played with a lot of passion, as always, with strikers Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres forming a lethal partnership at the top and a defense conceding just 18 goals throughout the season doing the job for them on a regular basis. But for a club that has to sell its best players every summer transfer window and start afresh, to overhaul 91 points and maintain that kind of consistency is a herculean task. But they almost pulled it off and fought for 37 weeks so hats off to them! In the end what completed the job was the form of Luis Suarez. Once the lead was cut short and the title looked slipping from their grasp, the Uruguayan striker was on fire scoring a total of 14 goals in the last 5 games that included his efforts in the match against Deportivo where he scored 4 and assisted 3. His form helped Barcelona bounce back and make sure that the title headed towards Camp Nou. His efforts also helped him clinch the Pichichi with 40 goals putting him ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 35. By doing this he also ended the Pichichi duopoly between Ronaldo and Messi that has been going on for many seasons with Diego Forlan the last player to win the trophy apart from these two, way back in 2009. Usually, it is Lionel Messi who comes up with magic like that but this time it someone else’s turn. This was the time for the Luis Suarez show. Author
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