An ode to football to seal the league title and devour Real Madrid.

BarcelonaLamine Yamal already said it after winning the Copa del Rey, and Real Madrid didn't want to listen to him. This year, the Whites can score all the goals they want at Barça, and they'll have to bow down. They could have gone 0-2 up right from the start of the match, and they'll have to hit a wall of reality: they can't handle this Barça, who could be crowned league champions on Thursday at Espanyol after dispatching Carlo Ancelotti's team for the fourth consecutive time in a thrilling derby where everything happened. It was the best farewell start to the Estadi Olímpic, with a flurry of goals in which at times it seemed as if Barça had already benefited from conceding two goals in quick succession. Instead of bringing back the ghosts of Inter, Mbappé's two early goals wounded the team's pride and awakened a beast that would devour a proud, but very small, Real Madrid side in football. Ancelotti's team was lucky with the refereeing decisions, or they could have done even more damage, as with Tchouaméni's handball that wasn't called at the end of the match.

La Liga is already decided. Barça is already putting bottles of cava, wine, Corpinnat, or ratafia in the fridge. Madrid resigns after being run over four times by a Barça that transmits joy and zest for life. Flick's team is an ode to the sport, a team that unites youth, experience, and the old. Barça chant It's sung to the same rhythm as the songs of Travis Scott, the rapper who celebrated goals in the stands, aware that Barça was giving him a good publicity campaign with its logo on his shirt. It's the Barça of Lamine Yamal, the demon of Rocafonda who torments Real Madrid fans, but also the Barça of Raphinha's tireless perseverance. And, especially, it is Flick's BarçaThe Barcelona fans, who five years ago suffered the German coach's ambition firsthand on a dark night in Lisbon, are celebrating thanks to him. Flick is the new boss of Barcelona. The miracle worker in a team where everyone has a story to tell, whether it's a recently retired goalkeeper or Gerard Martín, who went from Cornellà to the Blaugrana first team in a flash. A romantic Barça, too. A team that, rather than protecting a 4-3, prefers to look for a fifth.

In the past, when Barça came into a match overly optimistic, they usually lost. But the years of caution are over. The fans felt the team wouldn't let them down, even if the players were tired after the events in Milan. And so it was. A flurry of goals allowed them to put the European defeat in the dust. With Lewandowski, Ter Stegen, and Balde on the bench, Barça took to the pitch with the same team from San Siro. And, just like in Lombardy, they found themselves conceding two goals, the first a mistake by Pau Cubarsí that ended with Szczęsny awarding a penalty on Mbappé. The Barcelona fans protested, with some justification, a possible offside by the French striker, which VAR ignored. The second goal was even more controversial, as Mbappé scored the 0-2 in a move that started with a clear foul on Lamine Yamal. Once again, justice was blind.

But the two goals wounded the pride of a Barça side that has specialized in turning around adverse results. Lamine Yamal, who had been taking a lot of knocks to his ankles, got serious. Pedri began to emerge, and De Jong had one of his best games in a Barça shirt, although the comeback was achieved by Eric Garcia, just like in Milan, from a corner. Then it was Lamine Yamal's turn, who touched his magic lamp and gave a diabolical spin to the ball destined to make it 2-2. And Madrid got scared. They became smaller, smaller, and suffered to avoid being crushed by an increasingly larger Barça. A team in which Ferran would play his part, distributing up to three assists: to Eric and Lamine Yamal, but also to Raphinha, the man in charge of finishing off the opposition with two goals before halftime. One after a beautiful collective play and a trail that exposed Lucas Vázquez, who looked like an amateur trying to stop a professional.

Lluís Companys went from being scared and angry at the refereeing to digging into Madrid with the giant rondos of a Barça that played with its opponent the way some lions play with their victims, before the final bite. Vinícius, the man who had announced he would do everything possible to win the Ballon d'Or this year, seemed lost and was losing balls alone. Only Mbappé seemed to try, in a Madrid where Asencio showed he couldn't lose by kicking. Basically, Madrid wanted to avoid a historic thrashing at the hands of a Barça that began to lack energy in the second half, after so many battles. Cubarsí and Gerard gave way to Christensen and Balde, with the challenge of maintaining the high level to see if they could get the fifth.

Five is a magic number when talking about Barça. Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Ferran knew this and sought him out throughout the second half. Pedri played with the same elegance with which ballerinas perform impossible leaps at the Bolshoi, stopping the game and restarting it, hiding the ball from a Madrid side that would take advantage of Barça's defensive weakness to bring excitement to the match with Mbappé's third goal after breaking the offside trap of an idealistic Barça. If they have to win, they will do so faithfully, even if it means being able to cause damage and get a serious scare, as on two occasions Mbappé and the young Real Madrid player Víctor Muñoz did alone against Szczęsny. If a 4-3 draw on Tuesday broke Barça's heart, now a 4-3 win gives the league title to a team that finished the match on the road, playing with fire. And angry with the referee, since he didn't validate Fermín's fifth goal and didn't call a clear penalty on Tchouaméni for handball that had more than one person on the bench losing their temper. It was terrible refereeing.

But even so, Madrid didn't avoid a fourth consecutive slap on the wrist. This is the La Liga of Flick's Barça, a deserved winner of the tournament and also a winner in games with unfair decisions, like this one. A team that, in its pursuit of beauty, also causes a lot of suffering. Things of romantics and idealists. Madrid is condemned to play the most difficult role of all: that of the one who loses everything. No Cup, no League, no Champions League, no Super Cup. The year they wanted to win it all with Mbappé, they saw how the large white mural where they wanted to inscribe their titles was painted blue and seed by Lamine Yamal and company. The present belongs to a Barça that transmits a zest for life. And surely the future does too.