With a victory over their cross-town rivals Espanyol tonight, Barcelona will have a chance to clinch their first La Liga title since the departure of Lionel Messi. However, there is a good likelihood that Xavi’s squad will enter the field knowing that they have already won the title.
Barca would already be champions before entering the field if Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid both failed to clinch victories this weekend.
In any event, Barcelona only needs two of the remaining 15 points to win their first domestic league since 2019’s championship.
This championship followed a successful streak in which Barcelona won eight league titles in 11 seasons, but the Covid-19 epidemic made Barcelona’s financial crisis worse, which led to the loss of the finest player in the world, which in turn led to a deterioration on the field.
Sergio Busquets is without a doubt the most intellectual player I’ve ever had the pleasure of competing with. It has been a huge help to having him leading the team. It is vitally crucial for him to go away from the club with a LaLiga championship.
Under Ronald Koeman’s leadership, Barcelona was successful in winning the Copa del Rey in 2021. This was Lionel Messi’s final trophy before moving on to play for Paris Saint-Germain. However, the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons came to a close without any trophies.
The leadership of the club took the contentious decision to sell off a portion of their future broadcast profits and other assets in order to fund the acquisition of new players such as the renowned striker Robert Lewandowski, the winger Raphinha, and the defenders Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen. This was done in the hopes of turning this season’s results around.
Sergio Busquets is expected to leave Barcelona at the conclusion of the season, making his departure the final chapter in the illustrious career of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona team.
The club’s current coach, Xavi Hernandez, thought that it would mark the beginning of a new era at the club. He added that he hoped players such as Pedri and Gavi would be able to surpass everything that he, Iniesta, and Busquets had accomplished at Barcelona.
Xavi stated during a news conference on Saturday that the team is now “working on forming a new (era).” “I think athletes like Gavi and Pedri may even go beyond us since that’s how life and athletics work. I really hope that they can go ahead of us. There is a really solid batch, particularly strong in the midfield and among the home-grown players. I have high hopes that they will follow in Busquets’ footsteps and be just as successful as he has been since a new era is about to start.
However, Espanyol, who are now in the position of second-to-last, will also be doing everything they can to secure points in an effort to avoid relegation. Nico Melamed, a midfielder for Espanyol, stated that the team is aware that this match is a matter of life and death. We are going to handle this as if it were the final.