THERE appears to be no stopping Barcelona at the moment as the Spanish giants extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 36 games with a 4-0 thumping of La Liga rivals Eibar.
With Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez up front and all firing, it’s going to take something special for anyone to outscore the Catalan outfit and stop the streak.
As Barca Blaugranes reports: “Barcelona are now unbeaten in 36, and won 17 in a row if you ignore a meaningless 1-1 cup draw against Valencia when Barcelona had won the first leg 7-0.
“They are now three away from the English record, set by Nottingham Forest in 1978, who went 40 unbeaten.
They’re also nearing AC Milan’s greatest run, in 1992-93 when they reached 42 matches without losing.
And, they’re seven away from tying Juventus’ record of 43 – the best ever in the top 5 leagues.”
On current form it looks as if Barca will surge past those previous marks – although they do have a home meeting with bitter rivals Real Madrid on April 3.
But should they emerge unscathed over the next eight matches, would that automatically make their record a better one than that achieved by Nottingham Forest, AC Milan or Juventus?
We think Forest’s tally takes some beating as far as level of difficulty goes – given the relatively small size of the club and the league and era they were playing in.
This was a time when squads were vastly smaller than they are now and there were fewer substitutes on the bench – the number of players involved in Forest’s run would be significantly less than the total Barca boss Luis Enrique has had at his disposal, while both the FA Cup and the League Cup were taken far more seriously by the bigger clubs in England – there were no ‘gimmes’ for Brian Clough’s men.
Spanish fans may disagree but realistically there are very few sides in the Spanish league that pose a serious threat to Barcelona, whereas in the English top flight – and we see it week in, week out – any team is capable of beating anyone ‘on their day’.
Would Barca be able to sustain such a run in the more intense, physically demanding Premier League?
—–
Next up Barcelona face Getafe on Friday night at the Nou Camp.
They are unbackable at 1/16 or 1.06.
We’ll be considering a bet on the Over 4.5 goals line after team selection is announced.
—–
