Five facts and five key games behind Barcelona’s Primera Liga title triumph

Barcelona players celebrate their 23rd Primera Liga title after defeating Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon on May 17, 2015. Cesar Manso / AFP

Barcelona sealed their 23rd La Liga title on Sunday thanks to Lionel Messi’s winner in a 1-0 victory at Atletico Madrid.

We look at five standout facts from Barca’s title-winning campaign:

Prolific front-line

The decision to add Luis Suarez to an already stellar front line has reaped great reward for Barcelona as he, Lionel Messi and Neymar, with a combined 115 goals, have broken the previous club record of a century of goals scored by the strike force of Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o in the treble winning 2008/09 season. Of those, 79 have been scored in the league accounting for 73 per cent of Barca’s overall 108 goal tally.

Stingy defence

Luis Enrique’s men have been as frugal at the back as they have been prolific up front with a remarkable 23 clean sheets in 37 league matches to date.

End of an era

The two bedrocks around which the Barca team was built during Pep Guardiola’s golden era of 14 trophies in four years between 2008 and 2012, Andres Iniesta and Xavi have only started together four times this season.

Five star showing

The champions have shown no mercy time and again this season, scoring five goals or more in 11 of their 37 matches. Cordoba suffered the most in an 8-0 thrashing earlier this month, whilst Granada, Elche, Rayo Vallecano and Getafe have also been hit for six.

Ever-present Messi

Unlike most of his teammates, Messi has escaped Enrique’s penchant for rotating his squad. The Argentine has played every minute of the league season apart from being sat on the bench for the first-half in a 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad in January. His absence for those 45 minutes provoked an institutional crisis at the club that ultimately proved to be the turning point in Barca’s season.

A look at five key games on Barcelona’s road to the title:

November 8, 2014: Almeria 1 Barcelona 2

Fresh from back-to-back league defeats against Real Madrid and Celta Vigo, Barca were facing an embarrassing reverse to relegation-threatened Almeria as they trailed 1-0 with 17 minutes remaining.

However, Luis Suarez made his first significant contribution in a Barca shirt as he came off the bench to set up goals for Neymar and Jordi Alba to get Luis Enrique’s men back on track.

November 30, 2014: Valencia 0 Barcelona 1

The Mestalla has been one of the toughest places to go in European football this season with Valencia losing just once at home in the whole campaign.

Real Madrid, Atletico and Sevilla all lost away there, but after riding their luck throughout the 90 minutes, Sergio Busquets sealed a vital three points with virtually the last kick of the game deep into stoppage time.

January 11, 2015: Barcelona 3 Atletico Madrid 1

The champions visited the Camp Nou with Barca in full blown institutional crisis. Defeat at Real Sociedad a week earlier had provoked the sacking of sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta, club legend Carles Puyol followed him and Luis Enrique was said to be one game away from the sack as his relationship with Messi was in tatters.

The 90 minutes that followed turned Barca’s season around as Messi, Suarez and Neymar all scored for the first time in a league game with Messi and Suarez switching positions to what has proved to be devastating effect over the last five months.

March 22, 2015: Barcelona 2 Real Madrid 1

Barca went into the final Clasico of the season in pole position and in much better form. However, they had to withstand an onslaught from Madrid for the first hour as Cristiano Ronaldo cancelled out Jeremy Mathieu’s early opener.

Suarez once again proved decisive with a stunning finish that moved Barca four points clear at the top, a lead which they never surrendered.

May 17, 2015: Atletico Madrid 0 Barcelona 1

A year to the day since Atletico won a title decider at the Camp Nou, Barca exacted revenge and fittingly it was Messi who scored the title winning goal to seal the first trophy of a potential treble this season.

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