The league leaders are not yet made in Xavi’s image but have ground out results with help from once-marginalised players
As Barcelona’s players came back out of the dressing room, along the corridor and turned left, heading down the stairs past the chapel presided over by the virgin of Montserrat, there was clapping and the usual shouts. A “come on” here, a “let’s go” there, a “do it, team”. And then, just before the last of them ducked into the light, 77,987 people waiting on the other side for the second half to start, a voice said something none of them would say publicly: “Today is the league, eh!”
It was half-time on Sunday and in the season – 19 games gone, 18 and-a-half to go – and they still hadn’t found a way past the Sevilla keeper, Yassine “Bono” Bounou, and they knew what this meant. By the time they returned, 45 minutes and three goals later, the victory they needed now secured, everyone else did too. The TV wrap opened with a classic statement turned question: “Is there league?” As the presses rolled, the front of Sport and Marca – papers that could fight over whether it was sunny out – actually agreed: if there is, Barcelona had delivered it a “blow”.
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