Simply The Best In Spain Again

Barcelona win the domestic double

“We were stunned,” said Levante winger Jose Luis Morales. They all were; not just at the Ciutat de Valencia but right the way across Spain. As the news came in, people started tuning in to a match that many hadn’t planned to watch.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was the penultimate weekend of the campaign and Levante were on course to do something that no one else had managed all season long in the league, going back 36 games and beyond.

It was early in the second half and Levante were leading Barcelona 5-1.

Nine times Barcelona had trailed last term before coming back in all of them. And it looked as though it might be 10 when they scored three times to make it 5-4 with 20 minutes still to play. “That’s when we started crapping ourselves,” Morales laughed afterwards. “All sorts of thoughts go through your head.”

But Barca failed to score again and lost for the first time in La Liga. On course for the first unbeaten league title since 1932 – when the season was only 18 games long – the dream of finishing as “invincibles” was no more.

They were, though, champions once again. They had also won the league without losing a match as this defeat was after they had taken the title.