Five matches that defined Real Madrid’s 2016/2017 La Liga title campaign

Real Madrid 2 – 3 FC Barcelona – April 23, 2017

This post wouldn’t be complete without highlighting at least one loss this season.

After all, the story of Real Madrid’s 2016/2017 title campaign was always going to be a tale of, to borrow a phrase from The Dude, strikes and gutters, ups and downs.

Madrid’s April showed them facing down a fixture list from hell, having to face Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich (twice), and FC Barcelona all in the same month.

After suffering a last-minute draw to Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid were starting to fear that their grip on the La Liga title might be slipping away. But then, Barcelona managed to lose against Malaga, failing to capitalize on Madrid’s slip up.

That made El Clasico a match of utmost importance. If Madrid were to beat, or even draw, against Barcelona, the Blaugranes title hopes would have been minuscule at best. If Barcelona wanted to have any chance of winning the La Liga title, they needed to beat Real Madrid at the Bernabéu.

Madrid started strong against the Catalans, with Casemiro opening up the scoring.

But then, a battered and bloodied Lionel Messi decided that he was going to take control of the match and make it his own. Messi was all over the pitch, causing problems for Madrid’s defense and creating dangerous opportunities both for himself and his teammates. With goals from Messi and Rakitic, Barcelona had Real Madrid on the ropes.

A stupid, unnecessary red card from Sergio Ramos after a studs-up tackle on Messi looked like it might extinguish any hope Madrid had of getting back into this game.

But, just like the spring El Clásico from last season, going man-down actually seemed to inspire Real Madrid to play even harder.

A short-handed Real Madrid turned up the pressure on Barcelona, and out of nowhere, Marcelo found James Rodriguez streaking into the box to score a late equalizer.

Here’s where things got really crazy. Remember that will to win I was talking about?

Yeah, well, let’s just say it backfired, massively. The picture below says it all.

For some inexplicable reason, Real Madrid decided that they could win this match, and they were going to throw all caution to the wind in order to get the final victory. Even though a draw would have been a perfectly acceptable, nay, amazing result, Madrid pressed high up the pitch to try to win the ball back. This allowed Sergi Roberto to break past Marcelo (who, if we’re being perfectly honest, was stupid for not fouling him as he ran past) down the pitch.

This eventually set up Lionel Messi for a pin-point accurate strike to snatch all three points at the death. And then, this:

A picture that will leave a bad taste in Madridista mouths for years to come.

It was hard to not feel completely deflated after this match. Real Madrid had the points in hand that they needed to prevent Barca from mounting a comeback, but blew it by getting greedy.

While it certainly felt like it at the time, this was not to be the end for Madrid. Real Madrid still had a game in hand, and while their cushion had gotten much smaller, they could still afford one draw without losing their grip on the title.

The key question at that point was how Madrid would react. Would they allow the Barcelona defeat to get into their heads, or would they demonstrate the mental strength necessary to put the loss behind them and win the matches they needed to win?

Fortunately, it was the latter. Madrid won six league matches on the trot, not dropping a single point in La Liga after the Barcelona defeat.

Champions are defined as much by their wins as they are their reactions to losses. Zidane’s men were able to recuperate following this loss, and do what they needed to do to secure the La Liga title.