Barcelona has 'raised the white flag'?

(Baonghean.vn) - Coach Luis Enrique and his team had to share points with Villarreal and fell to 3rd place, missing the opportunity to shorten the gap with rival Real Madrid on the rankings. Is the La Liga 2016 - 2017 championship trophy out of Barcelona's reach?

After the match between Villarreal and Barcelona ended, on the way to the tunnel of El Madrigal stadium, defender Pique turned towards La Liga President Javier Tebas to express his anger about the situations where the main referee did not award a penalty to his team.

Responding to reporters, Pique shared in frustration: "We should have had a penalty in this match, but they ignored it. In the match against Bilbao, Neymar was also clearly fouled but the referee ignored it."

Unable to keep calm, Pique "provoked" the President of La Liga. Photo: Internet

Through Pique's statement, it can be understood that the Spanish midfielder is hinting at the fact that there is a force preventing Barcelona from defending the championship title. The truth is unknown, but with Pique's reaction, it seems that Barcelona players themselves no longer believe in their team's ability to surpass their rivals Real Madrid. Indeed, from form, the gap in points and past habits are all against the Camp Nou team.

Observing Barcelona’s journey over the past decade, the ability to “come back” on the rankings is extremely poor. Every time they have to stand behind their opponents in the race for the championship, Barcelona has not been able to overcome them to win the highest position. In the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 La Liga seasons, those were the 2 seasons where the championship belonged to the 2 Madrid teams, Real and Atletico. It is worth mentioning that in both of those seasons, Barcelona played the role of the pursuer, like the current situation of coach Luis Enrique and his team.

The gap of 5 points (Real Madrid has 1 match left to play) is not an impossible number to fill and overcome, but with the current form of Barcelona and Real Madrid, it is no different from "mission impossible". Meanwhile, the team at Bernabeu is showing terrible form with 39 unbeaten matches in all competitions.

In La Liga, Real Madrid has not suffered any defeat so far, they are the only team in the top 5 European leagues that has not known defeat. That impressive streak of form of the "royal team" was established in the context of Ronaldo, Modric, Bale, Ramos... taking turns to rest and recover from injuries.

Real Madrid is still showing extremely high performance with 39 unbeaten matches. Photo: Internet

Coach Zinedine Zidane's ability to "cut his coat according to his cloth" is truly admirable. Despite not having the strongest squad for a long time, under the direction of the French strategist, Real Madrid still knows how to win extremely important points. Most notably, the courageous 1-1 draw against Barcelona or the resounding 3-0 victory in the Madrid derby against rival Atletico. Both lucky and fortunate, that is what Zidane's team has been showing all this time.

What about Barcelona? La Liga 2016 - 2017 has just passed round 17, meaning there are still 2 rounds left to complete the first leg. However, up to now, Messi and his teammates have lost points 7 times with 5 draws and 2 defeats.

The entire last season, the tournament in which they won the title, coach Luis Enrique and his team failed to win all 3 points in 9 matches. It was a great pity for Barcelona that Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Alaves stole points right at Camp Nou. Such poor performance caused the "Catalan giant" to fall to 3rd place in the rankings, something rarely seen in recent seasons.

Messi's brilliance still cannot help Barcelona achieve good results in La Liga. Photo: Internet

New recruits at Camp Nou such as Denis Suarez, Alcacer, Gomes... failed to meet expectations, pushing coach Luis Enrique into a miserable situation every time some key players were injured. Although Messi and Luis Suarez are still as excellent as ever, they still cannot carry the burden of the remaining positions playing below their potential.

The draw at Villarreal's El Madrigal stadium was the second time in a week that Barcelona could not win (the previous match was a loss to Bilbao in the King's Cup). With such an inconsistent and poor performance, how can coach Luis Enrique and his team surpass Real Madrid in the rankings?

It is true that in football anything can happen. And with 21 rounds left in La Liga, the chance of winning the championship is not completely closed for Messi and his teammates. It is all just theory, because right now, not many people believe that Barcelona can successfully defend the championship title.

Thanh Hung