Could Barca win the league without losing a single game?


The best Barcelona history has ever seen has always set extraordinary goals for self-motivation, both on an individual basis as with Leo Messi, and as a collective team effort.

This incredible pursuit of excellence requires having a mental stamina so good, that it’s not enough to just go out and win matches. It requires a stream of constant challenges to ensure another chapter of Barca excellence is written in the history books.

FC Barcelona has become legendary for being the only team to win six titles in a calendar year as well as reaching other historic milestones. Looking towards 2013 and taking into account that Barca has already notched up 16 wins and a draw in 17 games, a very difficult challenge presents itself although not impossible; winning the league championship without losing a single game.

nou camp stadium

In fact, there are only two precedents, going back to the beginnings of the Spanish League: Athletic won its first league title in just the second year of La Liga in 1929-30 without losing a single game and two years later in1932-33, the same unimaginable feat was repeated by Real Madrid.

Only 18 games a season were played back then so Barca, 80 years later, would be half a season away to matching the feat by those footballing pioneers of yesteryear. But we are in the 21st century and there are still 21 games to be played to equal their records.

The big leagues of Europe have also had their say, too. One of them is Fabio Capello’s Milan from the Serie A who won the scudetto in the 1991-92 season without losing. They won 22 of their 34 games, winning the first treble title that season.

The very same team managed to extend their unbeaten run in the Italian Serie A for 58 games between 26th May 1991 and 21st March 1993.

Italian club Juventus emulated the amazing feat of Milan last season and became the second club to win the Serie A title undefeated with 23 wins and 15 draws.

In the Premier League in England, only Arsenal in the 2003-2004 season with the great Thierry Henry are the only team to win the league in a 100 years without losing a game. They did it with an amazing 26 wins and 12 draws, improving on the old Preston North End record who won the league title in 1889 with 22 wins in 22 games.

That team under Arsenal coach Wenger, unlike those he built later, never ever lost. He won a total of 49 games without a defeat and was known as ‘The Invincibles’.

In the German Bundesliga, no club has ever won the league without losing a game. Many would remember the great Hamburg of the 1980’s, which went 36 games without losing between 30th January 1982 and 29th January 1983.

In the Portuguese Primeira Liga, Porto won the 2010/11 league title without losing a single match, winning 27 and drawing just three with Andre Villas-Boas as coach and Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao as striker.

Porto managed to notch up 54 games without defeat over three seasons, but only Villas-Boas has been able to start and finish undefeated in one season. Only Benfica under Jimmy Hagan in the 1972-73 season was able to produce something similar, notching up 28 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.

Although there is still much work to do and a lot of La Liga left to dispute, if any team could carry out this amazing feat, it would be Barcelona.

About Barca Blogger

My name's Steve aka Barca Blogger and one of the founding members of the team at Barcelonafcblog.com. I've been around since the blog started and we aim to bring you the most up to date information on this great club.

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