The six key games which cost Barcelona the La Liga title this season
Results against Alaves, Depor & Malaga saw nine points slip away
There were refereeing mistakes at Villarreal, Real Betis and Malaga
La Liga is one across 38 games and it would not be fair to just look at what happened in the final game of ths season. In fact, the last game of the campaign was perhaps a paradigm of the whole season for Real Madrid and Barcelona. A solid champion overcoming Malaga 2-0 chased by an inconsistent side, even in their 4-2 win against Eibar.
However, there are a lot of factors which contribute to a side winning the league over 38 matches. The quality of the squad, the consistency of the players and the importance of some refereeing decisions in games.
In Barça's case, they showed that they're capable of beating all their toughest rivals but switching off against teams in the lowe half of the table. Luis Enrique's side won 10 and drew four (34/42 points) in fixtures against Athletic Club, Atlético, Valencia, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Real Madrid and Villarreal.
KEY POINTS
In contrast, the seriously messed up against Alavés, Málaga, Deportivo, Betis... due to a mix of poor performances and refereeing errors, which all contributed to them ending the season with 90 points, three behind Madrid. In total, 15 points (three draws and three losses) which could have changed Barça's luck this season.
Here are the six games which marked Barcelona's campaign:
Jornada 3, Barça-Alavés, 1-2: Luis Enrique made rotations and even though he brought on Messi and Luis Suarez, the damage had been done and three points escaped at Camp Nou due to Barça's own errors.
Jornada 12, Barça-Málaga (0-0): The Blaugrana failed to score at Camp Nou. But beyond their poor performance, the referee, De Burgos Bengoetxea, ruled out a Gerard Pique goal for offside which was not offside and didn't give a clear penalty for a foul on the defender. Two points disappeared.
Jornada 17, Villarreal-Barça, 1-1: Barça were stopped at the Estadio de la Ceramica by the referee refusing to give two penalties for blatant handballs by Bruno. Two more points gone.
Jornada 20, Betis-Barça, 1-1: Luis Enrique once again made a number of rotations but referee Hernández Hernández was the key figure here, not giving an own goal scored by Piccini when the ball had clearly crossed the line. In the same move, there was a penalty on Suarez not given. Two more points up in smoke.
Jornada 27, Depor-Barça, 2-1: Barça arrived at the Riazor on the back of their 6-1 win against PSG but paid the price for the effort they'd put into that comeback. This time it was Depor who came back to win after Barça had equalised. Three points gone.
Jornada 31, Málaga-Barça, 2-0: If against Depor Barça rested on the laurels after European glory, against Malaga they dropped off perhaps with their mind on their upcoming game with Juventus. An out of sorts Barça, who saw Neymar sent off, chucked three points away and then lost 3-0 in Turin a few days later, too.
