Barça finally dispatches its ghosts

Each day is a world in football, but some are especially substantial.

With 12 games ahead, Barça is champion

is not heard

anywhere.

They beat Real Madrid and have opened a gap of 12 points, a difference that has never been reversed.

Valencia, which at this point in 2004 was in second position, seven points behind Madrid, came back and became champion.

It is the largest margin traced so far.

We are facing one of the most surprising seasons in history, both for the light that the data sheds and for the protagonists of the film.

It is dizzying to talk about the winner of the championship in mid-March, which ends in two and a half months, on June 4.

In this century and at this point in the League, there is no news of such a great distance between the first two classified.

It is a full-fledged ocean.

One could think, therefore, of a leader of the time, of a team of historical magnitude, of those who do not leave a crumb on the table, but it is difficult to refer to the current Barça in these terms, eliminated in the first phase of the Liga de Champions and entering the Europa League, subjected to all kinds of miseries, from sports to institutional ones.

One of them, the

, already weighs like an elephant on the club.

Reality prevails, despite everything.

The vulnerable Barça, which skids repeatedly in Europe, leads the League with prodigious numbers.

With the projection of his average points (2.61 per game), he would reach a final figure of 99.5, a border that he has only surpassed once in his history.

In the 2012-2013 season, led by Tito Vilanova, he scored 100 points.

It was the imperial Barça of Messi, Iniesta and Xavi, no less.

No one would dare to compare this edition of the team with that one, but the merit is not in dispute.

After all, their distant pursuer is none other than the European champions, determined to preserve the crown because of what we saw at Anfield.

From what was seen at the Camp Nou, Madrid is a stuck team, subjected to a complex process of generational transition and bent on a resounding case of monoculture.

Barça's victory gave a new reading, perhaps decisive to restore the lost package.

For the first time in years, Barça won the game that they had to win.

Not a Super Cup final, not a Cup final, not just any good game, but the game with capital letters.

His spectacular collapse is explained less by the inability to win the big titles than by his repeated hecatombs, a history of destruction marked by venues (Olympic Rome, Da Luz, Anfield, Allianz Arena, San Siro, Old Trafford) and rivals: Rome , Liverpool, Bayern, Benfica, Inter and Manchester United.

The team that used to win almost everything got used to losing, usually where the decline was most evident.

A new tragedy was not allowed on this occasion.

The match measured his spirit more than his game.

He deserved the victory because it was more urgent than the indolent and flat Madrid of the first hour.

He rejected the discouragement of the early own goal and came back, a non-existent data of character in the last seasons of Barça.

He didn't dazzle, he made mistakes and in the last few minutes he got entangled in a plan that benefited Real Madrid, but his virtues outweighed his defects.

He faced Madrid and a dilemma: the League or the drama.

Barça dispatched his ghosts and grabbed the League.

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