Pique: We had to win La Liga twice!

Gerard Pique says Barcelona feel as though they have won La Liga twice this season after they recovered from a bad run to clinch the title on Sunday.

A Luis Suarez hat-trick sealed a 3-0 win over Granada to secure Barca’s sixth domestic crown in eight seasons, with Real Madrid finishing a point behind after their 2-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna.

Barca suffered three straight defeats in April to surrender a nine-point lead at the top, before winning their final five matches in emphatic style, scoring 24 goals and conceding none.

And Pique, who describes the club’s domestic success since 2009 as “unique”, admits it felt like they had won and lost the title before they were able finally to lift the trophy.

“I’m happy that we keep winning the league. We’re living a unique period. Nobody has won six leagues out of eight,” he said, as quoted by AS.

“Given the circumstances, we have had to win it twice. When we had eight points in our favour, we had it won. Afterwards, with the blip, we lost it, although it still depended on us. And now we’ve come back to win it.”

Pique, who has now won six Liga titles, believes the current generation has established the ultimate winning mentality after a period of pessimism at Camp Nou.

“This league, 20 years ago we wouldn’t have won it because we were so often undone by our own pessimism,” continued the defender.

“But this generation has changed things. We’re a winning team, we’ve shown that we can be trusted, because we ended up winning.”

Barca can clinch a second successive domestic double with a win in the Copa del Rey final against Sevilla next week, but Pique insists a failure to triumph at the Vicente Calderon would not detract from their season.

“We don’t need anything,” he said. “Of course it would be better if we won the Copa. Sevilla can beat you in a game, but I think our consistency is magnificent.”