Lionel Messi fittingly sealed Barcelona\u2019s 26th La Liga title on Saturday by coming off the bench to score the goal in a 1-0 win over Levante in front of a jubilant Nou Camp crowd, who celebrated a remarkable eighth league crown in 11 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barca\u2019s captain decided the game and the title in \nthe 61st minute as he received a header from Arturo Vidal, effortlessly \nfreeing himself from two defenders with his right foot before using his \nleft to plant the ball into the far bottom corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had started\n on the bench along with Sergio Busquets as Ernesto Valverde had one eye\n on Wednesday\u2019s Champions League semi-final first leg at home to \nLiverpool.But the coach inevitably turned to his talisman with the game \ngoalless at halftime, despite the best efforts of Philippe Coutinho, who\n had numerous attempts on goal and clanged the crossbar before being \nwithdrawn for Messi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Argentine needed just over a quarter of \nan hour to have the desired effect, lighting up the stadium with his \n34th league goal of the season in 32 appearances.With 13 assists to his \nname as well he has his footprints on more than half his side\u2019s 86 \ngoals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is very difficult to win this title, without the \namount of teams we are competing with, especially with this margin.\u201cWe \nhave done it two years in a row and it\u2019s fantastic to see the fans \ncelebrate the title like this at home. Now we want to go and celebrate \nit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cries of \u201cchampions\u201d rang out from the 91,000 supporters \ncrammed into the Nou Camp but Barca\u2019s players dropped their \nconcentration and Jose Luis Morales should have levelled for the \nvisitors but blasted over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levante also hit the post in \nthe final stages as Barca were left clinging on to their narrow \nadvantage deep into stoppage-time but relief came when they cleared a \ncorner and the final whistle sounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey turned us upside down\n and I think that was down to nerves. They had a few chances but it was \nincredible when they hit the post,\u201d Valverde added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t \nkill the game off and they started to believe while we get more nervous \nbut luckily we were able to see out the win.\u201dMessi, who became the first\n player to win 10 La Liga crowns with Barca and only the third player \nfrom any club to do so, hoisted the trophy into the sky before joining \nhis team mates and their children on a lap of honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEight out \nof 11 titles will be very difficult to repeat because La Liga is so \ndifficult, it has the best teams, the ones that are always fighting for \nEuropean trophies so what we have done is historic,\u201d said midfielder \nBusquets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barca lead the standings on 83 points after 35 games, \nan unassailable nine clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid with three \nmatches left because they have a superior head-to-head record this \nseason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valverde\u2019s side have now taken the first step in their \nbid to win a third treble in a decade.After their Champions League \nsemi-final against Liverpool when they will be bidding to reach the \nfinal of Europe\u2019s premier club competition for the first time since \n2015, Barcelona play Valencia in the Copa del Rey final on May 25.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Messi fittingly sealed Barcelona\u2019s 26th La Liga title on Saturday by coming off the bench to score the goal in a 1-0 win over Levante in front of a jubilant Nou Camp crowd, who celebrated a remarkable eighth league crown in 11 years. Barca\u2019s captain decided the game and the title in the 61st […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60141,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60139\/revisions\/60141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}