Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has claimed that Barcelona players celebrating their four-goal El Clasico victory “as if they had won the title” spurred them on to winning La Liga.
Barca defender Gerard Pique sent out a tweet that evening to confidently state “We are back” while Dani Alves claimed that Los Blancos were “lucky” to be ahead of the Blaugrana in the standings.
It was a somewhat bizarre statement, as Real Madrid moved 18 points clear of Barca this weekend by winning their 35th La Liga title with four rounds of games remaining.
Since their El Clasico victory in March, Barca have crashed to defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt to end their European journey while they have also fallen to home defeats against lowly Cadiz and Rayo Vallecano in La Liga. It followed on from the high of the victory in Madrid which gave the brief illusion that Xavi Hernandez’s side were now serious contenders again in Spain.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the opener for Barca in the 29th minute in his first El Clasico fixture when he managed to beat his man at the front post and divert his header past the helpless Courtois from close range. Ronald Araujo was then left unmarked from a corner to double his side’s lead just nine minutes later.
Xavi’s Barca turned on the class in the second half and very easily could have won the match by six or seven if they were more clinical in the closing stages.
Former Manchester City forward Ferran Torres whipped a fine strike into the top corner just moments after the half-time break following a skilful assist from Aubameyang. The summer signings then combined to score the fourth when Torres played a neat pass through to Aubameyang, who beat the offside trap and looped a cute chip over Courtois and into the back of the net to complete the humbling for Los Blancos.
Courtois has now said, after Real Madrid secured the title: “After the Clasico was the key moment, because some ( Barcelona players) celebrated as if they had won the title, that they were back. But we stayed calm to beat Celta in a difficult game and against Getafe, who are always difficult.
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"Winning the league is due to the work of the entire team. We all attack and defend. The day at Sevilla was the key, coming back from two goals down to win when everyone thought we were on the canvas and that killed our rivals a bit."
The Belgian goalkeeper went on to send a message to Manchester City, whom they host in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final: "We have had a great year and we hope to finish it off with winning the Champions League and we hope to go and play in another final."
When recounting the loss again Barca, Madrid shot-stopper Courtois said last month : "It was a very bad night, but we recovered quickly. You do not have to think too much about the loss. I am disappointed, of course, but I think that with the results and our attitude in both the games before and after it has become clear that it was a chance accident.”
