Barça are unbeaten in 36, two more than the previous Spanish record. But what's most impressive is how it was done and how quickly it has occurred.
UPDATE: Barcelona's unbeaten run finally came to an end on April 2 with a 2-1 loss to Real Madrid in El Clasico. The unbeaten run ended at 39 matches.
Eibar are a good team, especially at home, but the Catalan giants swatted them aside 4-0 with an outstanding performance from Lionel Messi.
Barcelona are now unbeaten in 36, and won 17 in a row if you ignore a meaningless 1-1 cup draw against Valencia when Barcelona had won the first leg 7-0.
They are now 3 away from the English record, set by Nottingham Forest in 1978, who went 40 unbeaten. They're also nearing AC Milan's greatest run, in 1992-93 when they reached 42 matches without losing. And, they're 7 away from tying Juventus's record of 43 - the best ever in the top 5 leagues.
What's really amazing about this run, however, is that it's come at such a point where exhaustion and fixture congestion should've dealt significant blows. Instead, Barcelona are in a ridiculously good position across three fronts, winning a world championship in the process.
On October 3rd, Barcelona lost 2-1 away to Sevilla. They haven't lost since.
That result had dropped them to 4th place temporarily, but they rebounded - and how. They thrashed Villarreal 3-0 and Real Madrid 4-0 and got to first place in La Liga, won the Club World Cup, won their Champions League group, and advanced to the round of 16 in the cup, all before the turn of the year.
And since, it's been even better. They're now top of the league by 8.5 points (counting the head-to-head tiebreaker) over Atletico Madrid, reached the cup final, and won the first leg of their Champions League knockout tie 2-0 away against Arsenal.
:Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar have taken turns carrying the team's scoring load, while a squad has gotten only stronger as Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan were cleared to play in January.
They've also done it with precious few breaks in between. There were the ones given when the team went to play the Club World Cup or during international breaks, which aren't really breaks at all. And then there was the mid-season Christmas break, and that's it.
Their biggest break actually was one they engineered for themselves by beating Valencia 7-0 in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals. Luis Enrique played many youth teamers in the return leg, nearly sacrificing his unbeaten streak in the process. B team player Wilfrid Kaptoum saved it with a late strike to make it 1-1.
Since the midseason break, it's been 19 games without much rest except for that. It's also been 17 wins. Barcelona have done it with 3 or 4 nights' rest almost always, bar one time in which they got 5 nights to prepare.
A collapse due to physical or mental exhaustion isn't out of the question, but Barcelona have already beaten the odds and fully deserve the great position they've put themselves in.
Now, finally, Barcelona gets 6 nights to rest up before playing Getafe. Then, it's back to no midweek rest with another match against Arsenal.
Looking over at the other notable records, it's going to be interesting to see if Barcelona can match or break them, because the amount of time necessary to complete their streak will be much, much shorter.
For example, it took Forest 256 days to get to 40. It will take Barcelona just 168 days, if they remain unbeaten that long.
Milan's 42 game unbeaten record took place over the span of 323 days. Barcelona would match that in about 183 days.
And Juventus got to 43 in 303 days. Barcelona would get there in 186 days.
I will be comparing these streaks more closely if Barcelona reaches them. Stay tuned.
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