By DPA,
Madrid: The Catalan media could hardly contain their joy on Sunday after Barcelona’s 3-2 win away against fourth-placed Sevilla all but assured them of another league title.
The dramatic Saturday triumph means that Pep Guardiola’s team just need to beat Valladolid at home next Sunday in order to retain the Liga title, supposing that Real Madrid will win win away against lowly Malaga.
Both twin giants have shattered the Spanish points records: Barca have 96 points from 37 games, Real have 95.
The headline in Sunday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo was “To Be Finished Off In The Camp Nou.”
The sports daily expressed its delight that Barca won “with eight boys from the youth sections in the starting lineup,” and that the goalscorers in Seville were, once again, “the Three Young Musketeers”: Lionel Messi, Pedro and Bojan.
Catalan television channel TV-3 said “it is no coincidence that the most successful Barca side in history is the Barca team with most local flavour, with most players from La Masia.”
La Masia is Barca’s legendary residence for teenagers, where they are taught to play the kind of patient possession football that the club has become famous for around the world.
The headline in Sport was “One Step Away From Glory.” The paper pointed out that Valladolid, who need to win to avoid relegation, “will not be easy rivals,” and that Barca will have to get by without playmaker Xavi – suspended after picking up a fifth yellow card in Seville – and probably without midfielders Maxwell and Seydou Keita,
both of whom picked up minor injuries.
The relegation situation is almost as dramatic as the setup at the top of La Liga.
For the first time in more than 20 years, no team is mathematically relegated ahead of the last round of matches.
Bottom team Xerez have 33 points, then come four teams – Racing Santander, Tenerife, Malaga and Valladolid – on 36.
The media in Madrid, meanwhile, was clearly disappointed at Barca’s win in Seville.
The rather sour headline in sports daily Marca was “A Push Towards The Title,” in reference to a possible penalty at the end of the Seville match committed by Barca defender Gerard Pique on Sevilla forward Frederic Kanoute which was not given.
According to Marca, “that decision, a mistaken one, could decide the league title.”
Rival daily AS also carried the photograph of Pique pushing Kanoute. It went on to praise Real – who thrashed Athletic Bilbao 5-1 Saturday – for “never having given up in their persecution of Barca.”
AS said that “it will not be easy to win in Malaga,” who need the three points to avoid relegation. The paper then praises Cristiano Ronaldo and company for having scored 101 goals, seven more than Barca.