FCBARCELONA.CAT

23.01.2010 22:23

Historic first half to the season

Jordi Clos

Pep Guardiola’s Barca team have set yet another record – they’ve gone through the whole of the first half of the league season unbeaten for the first time in the club’s history and have now gone 8 months without a league defeat.

The 0-3 win in Valladolid closed a spectacular first half to the season. Unbeaten in 19 games, Barca have piled up 49 of the 57 points on offer with 15 wins and 4 draws, The last time Barca lost in the league was on May 23rd 2009, when the title was already theirs and Osasuna won 0-1 at the Nou Camp.

Previous record destroyed

The previous best start to a season at the club was under Terry Venables in the 1983/84 season, when the team went 15 games unbeaten, whilst this team’s next objective must be to beat Rinus Michels’ record of 26 games without defeat set during the 73/74 season. Last season Guardiola’s team came close, going without losing from week 2 till week 24 - 22 games on the run.

Real Sociedad hold the record

The best unbeaten record in the league is held by Real Sociedad who in 79/80 went 33 games without defeat. The Basques are also the only other team to go through the first half of a season unbeaten, something they achieved in 2002/03 when they won 12 and drew 7 of their first 19 games.