Lionel Messi's speech to Barcelona fans in 2019 hits even harder after Real's La Liga win

Real Madrid are champions of Spain once again.

With goals from Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema, as well as a brace courtesy of Rodrygo, Los Blancos wrapped up the La Liga crown with an emphatic 4-0 win over Espanyol on Saturday.

Truth be told, the La Liga trophy has looked destined for the Bernabeu for a long time now with even the sizeable blip of the 4-0 defeat in El Clasico barely damaging their title charge.

The simple fact of the matter is that the unexpected drop-off from Real‘s traditional title rivals left the door wide open for Carlo Ancelotti to complete his set of league crowns in each of Europe’s top five divisions.

And it’s the third consecutive season that the La Liga crown has taken residence in the Spanish capital with Atletico Madrid’s 2020/21 triumph now sandwiched between two wins from Real.

As such, the jubilant scenes at the Bernabeu on Saturday now mean that it’s been three seasons since Barcelona were able to brand themselves as the best male team in Spain.

And while that might not sound particularly note-worthy given all of Barca’s struggles in recent years, it’s certainly eyebrow-raising when you consider all their domestic success in previous campaigns.

Its easy to forget that a time where the Blaugrana were hoovering up La Liga titles like they were going out of fashion was in full swing just a few years ago.

In fact, you’d be forgiven for wondering if Real and Atletico’s dominance of the last three seasons has made the Camp Nou faithful think that they took the club’s success in La Liga for granted.

At least, you might get that impression if you remember a speech that Lionel Messi made to Barcelona fans ahead of the 2019/20 season in which he directly spoke about the club’s La Liga wins.

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