FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.01.2010 12:05

Iniesta: 17 months unbeaten in the League

Jesús Carrillo

Barca’s run of results over the last season and a half has been the best in the club’s history and one player stands out in terms of results: Andrés Iniesta- Barca have lost just one league game in that time with him on the pitch.

Soria, 31st August 2008, the last time Barca lost in the league with Andres Iniesta playing. It was the first game of the season and Guardiola’s first league game in charge and the team, with Iniesta on the field for the full 90 minutes, went down 1-0 to the newly promoted Numancia. Since then, amazingly, Iniesta has not been on the losing side in a league game.

Absent for defeats

It’s not that Barca haven’t lost, but Iniesta missed both the 4-3 defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Vicente Calderon and the 1.2 win for Espanyol in last year’s derby. With the title won, Iniesta was out injured for the defeats against Mallorca and Osasuna at the tail end of last season.

100% in Champions League

Barc lost just one game in Europe last season, the final group game when Shaktar won 2-3 at the Nou Camp, but Iniesta was also unavailable with an injury that day too, which meant he went through the whole season, in all competitions, on the losing side just the once, and that on the first day of the league campaign.

Unbeaten this season

The defeat in Soria was 17 months ago and with the great start to this season that means Iniesta hasn’t actually been in a losing team in the league since then. A key player in Guardiola’s scheme, Iniesta was out injured for much of the summer, but is now right back at his best and with his winning record, a guarantee for Guardiola – if he plays, Barca don’t lose!