Barcelona will head to Levante on Sunday night top of La Liga and with a score to settle.
Seven months ago, they were two games away from becoming the first team to finish a Spanish top-flight season unbeaten since Real Madrid in 1932, and even then there were only 18 games in a 10-team division.
It would have been a remarkable feat, a feather in the cap for their coach Ernesto Valverde to help soothe the pain of a quarter-finals exit from the Champions League.
But Levante had other ideas, scoring three times in 10 minutes to lead Barca 5-1 before prevailing 5-4. “We are angry not to have come through this game and to lose the opportunity to finish unbeaten,” Valverde said.
On their way to qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League this time, Barcelona drew at home to Tottenham on Tuesday when Valverde took the chance to rest several key players, including Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez, Gerard Pique and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The irony is they will be fresh this weekend for the same opponent many believed knocked the stuffing out of them last season, three days before their collapse to Roma.
Perhaps Valverde has since heeded accusations he was naive, that he chased the unbeaten season when rotating his players could have helped them go further in Europe.
