Barcelona lost in Almeria and La Liga will be interesting. In addition, injuries, morale and the lot are against it

Football is a sport in which you can very quickly fall down from the clouds. Something similar, though not nearly as drastic, is currently being experienced by Barcelona. And it needs to wake up quickly or it could cost it everything.

If we go back to mid-February, Barcelona was at its peak. It had a run of 10 wins under its belt, including a victory over Real Madrid in the Super Cup, its lead at the top of the table over its hated rival was growing.

The Blaugranas had managed several tough games in a row, beating Villarreal, Sevilla, Betis and Real Sociedad, and had gone virtually unbeaten in La Liga. Given Real Madrid’s decline in form, Barcelona were expected to have already led the season to the title.

But the Europa League threw a bit of a pitchfork into it. Barcelona have lost key player Pedri to injury, who in the last month has three times decided a game with a single goal in 1-0 wins over Getafe, Girona and Villarreal, and the Catalans’ play without him is half-hearted.

On top of that, the team’s top scorer Robert Lewandowski is also injured and his absence is estimated at two weeks.

Earlier, another important player, Ousmane Dembélé, was injured and the Culés were also eliminated by Manchester United in the 1/16 final of the competition they wanted to win.

A shaky team

This took a big toll on the team’s morale, as all the fiascos in Europe in recent years, the inability to win anything in the cups, started to come to the fore again and it left a mark on the players.

Even so, the Barcelona players got the gauntlet thrown down when Real Madrid only drew 1-1 in the Madrid derby on Saturday. If the Blaugranas had won in Almería, they would have already jumped to 10 points, which would mean that it is practically decided.

However, the EL relegation took its toll on the players and they put in their worst performance of the season in Andalusia according to coach Xavi. They deservedly lost 0:1 to the newcomer and instead of increasing their lead to 10 points Real pulled the deficit down to 7 points. This is still a comfortable lead, but Barcelona are not in a good mood at all.

Robert Lewandowski is absolutely zero at the moment and, according to Spanish experts, deserves to be rather benched. Actually, that’s what will happen because of the injury. The other players are not doing well either, the morale in the team has dropped considerably.

Moreover, on Thursday Barcelona travel to Santiago Bernabéu for the Copa del Rey semi-final. As it stands, that’s a big exclamation point.

A tough draw

In La Liga, the Blaugranas are not expecting anything easy. This weekend they welcome Valencia, who are fighting for their lives and will leave everything on the pitch. In addition, they will miss the injured Pedri and Dembélé, as well as the out-of-sorts Gavi, and the out-of-sorts Xavi will not be able to be on the bench.

After that, the Catalans will have an extremely difficult trip to Bilbao at San Mamés. In their last game in the Basque Country, Athletic won the Copa del Rey quarter-final in extra time, while their last league game ended in a draw. So the red and white hell is not a favourite for the Catalans.

But another test immediately follows when, a week after that, Barcelona take on Real Madrid at home in El Clásico. They haven’t beaten their age-old rival at Camp Nou since 2018.

So if Barcelona doesn’t recover from its current slump in form, it could cost it everything it has built so far.

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