Barcelona And Spain’s Dominance Is Over – Busquets & Pedro

The reign of dominance that both Barcelona and Spain have enjoyed over the last few years is over, according to Sergio Busquets and Pedro.

Spain won consecutive European Championships in 2008 and 2012 around their 2010 World Cup win but crashed out of the 2014 edition at the group stages after losing 5-1 to Netherlands and 2-0 to Chile.

Under coach Pep Guardiola, Barcelona won three consecutive league titles, two Champions League crowns and lifted the Club World Cup on two occasions. They also won the Copa del Rey twice, the Supercopa de Espana three times and the Uefa Super Cup twice.

Since Guardiola’s departure in 2012, the Blaugrana have lifted just one league title and last season finished second to Atletico Madrid in the league, to whom they crashed out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

Busquets and Pedro both agree that Barcelona and Spain will probably never reach those heights again.
“We won’t go back to seeing the best Barcelona or the best national team,” Busquets told reporters.

“It’s difficult because that era, six years ago was so special and there were so many great players,” Pedro added, referring to his club. “Like Sergio says, I think it’s going to be difficult to repeat those years when we had so much success, although both Barca and Spain have sufficient quality in their current squads to try to achieve it, that’s what we have to do.”

Busquets was then asked to compare Guardiola with current Barca coach Luis Enrique.
“They are very similar,” he replied. “Although Luis Enrique has a harder character, Guardiola is the best coach I have had in my career.”