In one of the most nail-biting finish to the season, FC Barcelona were crowned La Liga Champions 2009-10 season after beating Real Valladoid 4-0. Meanwhile Real Madrid, who gave Barca a tough fight till the end could only manage an away draw against Malaga. An own goal from Prieto, followed by a second from Pedro and a brace from Lionel Messi secured Barca their second consecutive League title. Lionel Messi with his two goals equalised the record held by Ronaldo, set in the 1996/97 season. With Xavi suspended everyone expected Iniesta to start from the begining, but Guardiola rightly decided to not to start with him after the injury lay off. So we had our traditional defensive line-up with Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal lined up infront of Valdes. The midfield had Busquets, Keita and Toure. The forward line-up once again saw Ibrahimoivc missing, resluting in Bojana and Pedro pairing Messi.FC Barcelona started very nevously. Real Valladoid did terrorise us with couple of decent chances in the first ten minutes. In the 4th minute Puyol produced an absolutely match saving block after a Valdes mistake has given the ball to Valladoid. Valdes was again at fault soon after his clearance header found for Diego Costa, but luckily his shot was deflected wide. After that Barca took control of the game. May be the news that Real Madrid was trailing at Malaga gave a bit of comfort and settled the nerves. Keita had our firts effort on goal with a 30 yard long
strike. Soon after Toure tried his luck but was tipped over by Valladoid custodian. Soon Messi and Bojan had their first shots but was saved by Jacobo. In the 27th minute Barca went 1-0 ahead after an own goal from Prieto. Bojan played the ball to Abidal, who played it to Pedro who cut the ball back from the line which was directed onto the goal by Prieto. The second goal came in the 31st minute. Messi played a forward pass to Toure who returned the to Messi'd path, Messi then played the ball to Pedro who finished off the move through Jaccobo's legs.With the two goal advantage, the match was virtually over. The third goal came in the 62nd minute. Toure received the ball got past two players before crossing the ball from the right, Pedro played a excellent dummy leaving Messi virtually open at the far post and Messi made no mistake. The fourth goal came in the 76th minute. Once again Toure played the creative part in that one too. Toure after receiving the
ball from Pique played a neat through ball to Messi, who finished calmly claiming his second of the match and the 34th of the season. There was only one point of interest in the rest of the match, to find out whether Messi will socre a third. But it wasn't to be.There was no doubt that this was a fitting finale to this season's La Liga championship. Messi may not have broken Ronaldo's record, but the fact that he equalised the record says a lot of the player. We were crowned La Liga champions with 99 points, that in itself should be a kind of club record. Real Madrid with the new cash infused spirit did push us through to the end. But in the end Barca with their spirit of Cantera prevailed with ease. There were some disappointments in the season, but this team has given us a lot to enjoy. Incidently this is our fourth title of the season.