35 league games unbeaten for Barça

Following Saturday’s game at Málaga, Barça have extended their unbeaten run in La Liga to an immense 35 games. That’s already a club record, but there are other all-time bests that are very much within the team’s sights now.

Longest unbeaten run in La Liga

They only have another three games to get through before they would match Real Sociedad’s amazing run of 38 matches without defeat from 1978/79 to 1979/80, the all-time tournament record.

To match them, Barça will need to either win or draw against Athletic Club and Leganés at the Camp Nou and escape unscathed from Sevilla’s Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán in between.

If they can do that, then they’ll have a chance to set a new record when they entertain Valencia in mid-April. So, just one of the next four games is away from home, meaning it’s definitely doable!

Longest unbeaten run in a single season

Ernesto Valverde has not lost a single league fixture since taking charge of the first team. That’s 28 games, which is already the deepest into a single season that the club has ever gone without suffering defeat.

Overall, and in a single season, the longest unbeaten run Barça ever put together was 31 games from week 3 to 34 in 2010/11. Pep Guardiola’s side then lost to Real Sociedad, ironically the side that held, and thanks to that still holds, the record – 32!

A whole season unbeaten?

There’s always that horrible danger of ‘talking too soon’, but with just ten games left to play this season, perhaps we can at least start whispering among ourselves about the possibility of actually going the whole season without defeat.

It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened in La Liga. Athletic Club did it in 1929/30 and Real Madrid did the same thing two years later, in 1931/32.

But not only was that a VERY long time ago, in those days teams only played 18 games.

The closest a team has come to repeating the feat in modern times was Real Sociedad, who were unbeaten with just two games left to play in 1979/80. But after 32 games without defeat, they lost at Sevilla. To rub salt into the wound, they didn’t even go on win their first ever league title!

Real Madrid took the trophy that season, but ‘justice’ would be done when that legendary Real Sociedad team went on to win the next two championships.

Current format

Since the league was expanded to 20 teams (and 38 games) in 1987, two teams have come very close to an unbeaten season.

Real Madrid came close in 1988/89, suffering their first and only loss in week 29 at Celta Vigo.

Barcelona matched that record under Pep Guardiola in 2009/10, picking up points in every game apart from a 2-1 reverse at Atlético Madrid in week 22.

Could this be the season that Barça rewrite the history books? Fingers crossed and watch this space!