Barcelona match their worst start to La Liga season in 25 years

Barcelona match their worst start to La Liga season in 25 years

El 1x1 de los jugadores del Barça ante el Real Madrid / | SPORT.es

For the second season in a row, Barça have lost two of their opening give matches

Saturday's 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Clasico at Camp Nou showed that Ronald Koeman's Barcelona side are still in the reconstruction phase. 

Aside from the controversial penalty decision, Barça were unable to react in the final 20 minutes. Neither the veterans nor the youngsters could turn things around. 

Barça are now three games without a win in La Liga following the draw against Sevilla and the losses to Getafe and Madrid. That after they started impressively with wins against Villarreal and Celta Vigo. 

It's the same start they made to the season last year under Ernesto Valverde, when losses against Athletic Club and Granada and a draw against Osasuna were complemented with wins against Real Betis and Valencia. 

WORST START 

Barça have started as badly since 1994-95, when Koeman was still playing for the club and you only got two points for a win, not three. 

That season, Barça started the campaign on the back of a humbling 4-0 Champions League final loss to AC Milan in Athens, which brought an abrupt end to the glorious era of the Dream Team -- much like Barça 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich this summer. 

Since then, Barça have always started better through the first five games. Their best starts came in 1997-98 (Louis Van Gaal), 2009-10 (Pep Guardiola), 2012-13 (Tito Vilanova), 2013-14 (Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino) and 2017-18 (Valverde), when they won all five games. In all of those seasons except one, under Tata, they won the league. 

WORST STARTS IN LAST 26 YEARS 

SEASON P W D L PTS
2020/21 5 2 1 2 7
2019/20 5 2 1 2 7
1994/95 5 2 1 2 5*

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