After the failure in the Champions League, the League has become Barça’s great objective. A competition that the Blaugrana club has dominated in the 21st century (with ten titles), but now has not won for three years. The project that Laporta and Xavi are building needs a great success to consolidate. Europe is still not within reach of the Blaugrana, as has already been shown by the premature and painful elimination in the group stage. The bet goes, then, for the local tournament, which is also the one that marks the true level of a team throughout an entire season. Winning the League is not easy because it means being the most consistent throughout 38 days. And most coaches give it a higher value, even, than the Champions League, where other circumstances intervene, such as luck in the draws. Xavi, of course, is one of those who believe that winning the League has a lot of merit. Although it is, like the Spanish, a League of two after the ‘resignation’ of Atlético.
Barça, in fact, is in a good position to be champion when a third part of the tournament has been played. There’s still a lot. But the sensations are good. This Tuesday, the blaugranas took the first step ensuring leadership until after the World Cup. The heroic victory at the Osasuna field reinforces its first position in the standings, with a 5-point advantage over a Madrid in crisis (a draw and a defeat in its last two games), which closes the day against Cádiz on Thursday at the Bernabeu. The leadership before the break is a ball of oxygen for a Barça stressed by the urgencies. The extraordinary investment made in signings (more than 200 million euros) demands immediate performance and the KO in the Champions League set off all the alarms. The solvency shown in the League is a balm that must be used to continue working without pressure on the transformation of the squad.
The victory achieved in Pamplona reaffirms Barça’s clear intention to fight for the title. The game was very difficult for him because after half an hour he was left with 10 players due to Lewandowski’s expulsion and with a 1-0 against on the scoreboard with a goal that had to be annulled due to a foul on Marcos Alonso. But the team had the strength, courage and enthusiasm to overcome even Gil Manzano’s lousy refereeing and pull off an epic comeback with the air of a champion. Three golden points that give a tremendous boost to this new Barça.