Barca wins La Liga with still 4 games left

Barcelona is celebrating yet another Spanish league title to cap a nearly perfect season.

Unbeaten Barcelona added to its domestic dominance by winning La Liga for the third time in the last four seasons on Sunday, remaining unbeaten after 34 rounds. Lionel Messi scored a hat trick and Philippe Coutinho added a goal to give Barcelona a 4-2 win at Deportivo La Coruna and an insurmountable 11-point lead over Atletico Madrid.

“We know how difficult it is to win this league,” Messi said. “We were better than our rivals. There is a lot of merit to winning this title without any losses.”

Barcelona has won 26 league games and drawn eight, with four matches left.

It was Barcelona’s seventh league title in 10 seasons and 25th overall. Real Madrid, last year’s champion, leads with 33 La Liga trophies. Barcelona has also thrived in the Copa del Rey, the country’s second-most important club competition, winning it for the last four seasons.

“The hardest thing is to keep winning,” said coach Ernesto Valverde, who is celebrating his first league title in his debut season with Barcelona. “You have to find a way to keep coming back.”

Barcelona’s next goal is to try to finish the league unbeaten, something which has never happened in the competition’s current format.

“It’s been an almost perfect season for us in the league,” midfielder Sergio Busquets said.

Barcelona’s biggest setback this season came in the Champions League, when it was eliminated by Roma in the quarterfinals after squandering a three-goal advantage from the first leg.

Andres Iniesta, who last week announced he won’t return for a 17th season with the club, started from the bench but entered the match close to the end to applause from most of the crowd at Riazor Stadium. /