Barça wins the League in a glorious night against Madrid

BarcelonaEcstasy at the Camp Nou. Barça turned Real Madrid into a toy with which they did as they pleased to be proclaimed League champions on a night so perfect that it seemed the sun would even come out. Dreams sometimes come true, and the Barça fans saw how, for the first time, they were proclaimed League champions with the most perfect script: at home, with their people, defeating Madrid and sending them to the corner to think.

It will be one of those nights that will last weeks, months, and perhaps years. Checkmate, a master move in which the result was never in danger, as Marcus Rashford invented a great free-kick goal to start the match. The best version of a team that has arrived a bit suffocated at the end of the season was not even necessary. A draw would have been enough, but winning the title with just one point would not have been typical of a team designed to win. They faced a great team that knows how to overcome the absences of players like Lamine Yamal and a group of players dressed in white who go to war each on their own. Sometimes even fighting among themselves.

Only the loss of Hansi Flick's father, who chose to be on the bench despite the tragic news, slightly tarnished such a perfect day that more than one ended up rubbing their eyes. The players were hugging Flick, Olivia Rodrigo was taking photos with Lamine Yamal, and the youngest were taking off their shirts behind the goal, jumping. Asian tourists wanted to have everything recorded so as not to forget it, and couples of older members were kissing with the same passion as when Rexach, Neeskens, and Cruyff were running on the pitch, the man signed partly thanks to the missed Marjolijn van der Meer, who has also left us this week.

This exuberant Barça gifted its fans an incontestable triumph the day Real Madrid returned to Camp Nou after three years. And if winning the League is already beautiful enough, doing it in a classic is even more so. You celebrate and see how your rival sinks into a pit that seems bottomless, amid fights and scandals. And look, the white players, aware that they were arriving at Camp Nou like lambs to the slaughter, did everything they could to try to avoid the bitter experience of seeing Barça lift the title. They had an opportunity in the first half when the young Gonzalo missed when alone in front of Joan Garcia. But Madrid was condemned to be pricked by a stadium that let go of all its imagination with mocking chants. They sang to Vinícius that instead of a Ballon d'Or, he has a beach one at most, and Arbeloa was compared to a donkey, a nickname Piqué hung on his back years ago. The Madrid coach watched with the face of a martyr about to be executed as his Madrid had no footballing arguments to oppose Barça.

Rashford's goal, delicious, already set the tone for the match. Madrid could try, but every time Barça clicked, Courtois had problems. The second goal came after a great assist from Dani Olmo to Ferran Torres, with a move so quick that the Madrid defenders seemed like statues in the sun. And the visiting team was lucky not to concede more goals, because Rashford missed a chance when alone in front of Courtois that seemed destined to end with the third cry of joy of the night.

Every time Barça accelerated, Madrid crumbled. Every time Pedri hid the ball, Madrid danced to his rhythm, insecure, a step away from a nervous breakdown. Flick had decided to place Eric García on the wing to stop Vinícius, who, in general, limited himself to protesting everything with his tantrums. Gavi, who is once again enjoying football, dominated the midfield, and Fermín was tangling with a Trent Alexander-Arnold who was one of the visitors' best players. In attack, Ferran Torres had one of the best games of the season, because he understood well when it was time to attack and moved up and down, engaged, sharp as a fox.

The match was already decided at halftime. And the league, even more so. It only remained to be seen what punishment Arbeloa's team would receive, who tried to stop the locals' game with the tactics the coach learned from Mourinho when he was a player: fights and fouls. And it worked out relatively well for him, as in the second half they started to hover around Joan Garcia's area with sterile attacks. Bellingham managed to score shortly after claiming a penalty, but he was offside. And when Vinícius finally escaped from Eric, Joan Garcia stole the ball.

Flick, however, knew that control had to be regained and brought on De Jong and Raphinha, first. Then, Marc Bernal and Lewandowski. To maintain intensity, cut off the attacks of a Madrid that was trying without luck, and get excited by the possibility of scoring a third. But it didn't happen, because Raphinha and Lewandowski were so eager to score that they didn't pass the ball in very clear opportunities. But it didn't matter. Barça were League champions for the 29th time on an emotional night for Flick, the architect of this project. The players sought him out, aware of everything that must have been going through the mind of a man who has managed to build a team that has brought joy back to the Camp Nou. The night of May 10, 2026 will always be special. The night when Barça, triumphant, rose above a Madrid that ended up losing their heads.