We look back to how Barca has overturned their situation from the Luis Enrique times to become the virtual winners, far ahead mathematically to clinch the title midway in Spain.
An Ernesto level turnaround in the final 45 minutes at the Capital ensured Barcelona cushion on the way to La liga crown. While at the start of the premier fixture of the Spanish league, the unfurling of a banner beaming "White Christmas" couldn't quite hold true for the next 90 minutes as the Blaugrana took charge of the game as it went through. At the start of the season, a team struggling to come out of the shadows of Neymar's surprise exit to PSG is now on top of the league with a 14 point lead over their arch rivals Real Madrid. The non-favourites for Liga in August came as favorites for this game. Much resounding appreciation for Valverde is due here, with an early injury to Dembele his team from attacking front was back to zero. The consequent winning streak since then in the league and much-balanced performances in the European outings did not come to FC Barcelona fans as a surprise.
There were reasons behind, first that Valverde made it clear in his day one press conference itself "The focus would be on defense".
It was clear when his team played the way they were structured was to defend first. This was somewhat closer to Pep(not that good!) though far from Luis Enrique's attacking Barca.
Barca's all-round display is much credited to some good display from his players who were not playing that well last season, Jordi Alba, the surprise signing Paulinho all to much credit have done immensely well. The display of football from Umtiti and German shot-stopper Ter Stegen as always been rock solid making Barca the best defensive team in Europe. The result is that Barcelona leads the chart of most clean sheets in La Liga(11) which shows their organized defensive display.
While from here on, the title is only for FC Barcelona to lose as their 14 gap from the main rivals and having already visited Bernabeu,Wanda Metropolitano,Mestalla,Pizuan the path from here gets a tad easy for the Catalan Giants. As Zidane and Valverde claim "it's too early to call the league off" might not just be the case as Barca look in a comfortable position with Valencia not as threatening as they seemed and Madrid still missing their edge this season,
more to come...stay tuned to La Liga Cafe.
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