LALIGA SANTANDER
When can Barcelona win LaLiga title?
With upcoming games against Rayo, Betis and Osasuna to look forward to, just when can Barça fans expect to have the league crown sown up.
Although manager Xavi Hernández is loathe to get carried away, there surely must be some maths being done in the Barcelona dressing room. The Catalans are 11 points ahead of closest rivals Real Madrid and there are just eight games to play, so when can they return to be crowned domestic champions after three dry seasons. It will be Liga number 27 for Barça.
Barça title clinched against La Real?
The Liga Santander title may arrive soon for the fans. If Barça win the three games they have next week (Rayo, Betis and Osasuna) and Real Madrid pick up no more than four points in their three (against Girona, Almería and Real Sociedad), the difference will be, at least, 16. With the three victories, Barça would go to 85 points and be beyond Madrid’s reach, and Xavi’s men will be singing loud on Tuesday 2 May, when there will only be fifteen points from the final five games available.
Logically, though, that is not the most likely scenario. Despite Madrid’s extra focus on both the Copa del Rey final and the Champions League semi-final double header against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, even a rotating squad could offer a battle until the end. If both teams do win every league game, Barça would be proclaimed champion on matchday 35 against Real Sociedad. At that point they would maintain their eleven point advantage with only three games left to play, offering just nine points.
Another potential interesting crowning could come a week earlier, at the home of their local rivals Espanyol at the RCD Stadium in Cornellà.