A year that equals the best in Barcelona’s history, with La Liga in the bag and UEFA Champions League and Copa del Rey finals to come, could not have started more inauspiciously.
Barca began the year with a 1-0 defeat at Real Sociedad on the field and descended into full-blown institutional crisis off it.
Lionel Messi and Neymar were left on the bench at the Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastian after returning back from their Christmas holidays later than the rest of their teammates, a decision which did not rest well with the former as he skipped an open training session with the club’s fans the next day.
Photo: Reuters
On the same day, Barcelona sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta was sacked and his assistant and club legend Carles Puyol walked.
The following week Barca manager Luis Enrique’s job was on the line as 2013-2014 La Liga champions Atletico Madrid visited the Camp Nou, but rather than leave their coach out to dry, Barca produced their best performance of the season and set in motion a run of 29 wins in 32 games to propel them to glory on all fronts.
“From the game against Real Sociedad, everything changed,” Messi said weeks later. “The attitude, the desire of the team to go out on the field in a different way and to press.”
The biggest change came from Messi himself, though. A week after the Sociedad game, the four-time World Player of the Year had to watch Cristiano Ronaldo pick up his third Ballon d’Or and pronounce he was coming for Messi’s record.
Yet, in the five months which have followed it, Messi has again taken the lead in the rivalry between the two and recovered the form that made him the world’s best between 2009 and 2012.
“I see him strong, quick, competitive. He has returned to being the player I had the privilege to coach,” Barca’s most successful coach, Pep Guardiola, said after watching a Messi masterclass eliminate his Bayern Munich side in the Champions League last week.
If Messi’s 54 goals and 30 assists have been the catalyst for Barca’s stellar run, Neymar and Luis Suarez have starred in the supporting role.
Messi’s upturn in the new year coincided with Suarez recovering his best form after a four-month ban for biting at the FIFA World Cup last year, and a switch in positions between the two, with the Uruguayan playing more centrally to allow Messi to use his full repertoire of skills from a deeper role.
Suarez has added a different dimension to Barcelona.
“He gives Barca the aggression that is so important in the attacking third,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone, who, having seen his side go unbeaten in six games against Barca last season, lost all four meetings this campaign.
Meanwhile, Neymar’s 37 goals means he has struck more than the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo or Thierry Henry ever managed for Barca in a single season.
Fittingly, it was at Atletico, exactly a year to the day since los Colchoneros won the league at the Camp Nou, where the league title was won on Sunday thanks to a piece of Messi genius.
The first trophy of what they hope and most expect to be a treble in three weeks time in Berlin.
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