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Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid clinched their 34th La Liga title following a 2-1 win against Villareal, which was their tenth win on the trot following the restart of the Spanish top-flight after the COVID-19 outbreak.
It marked Los Blancos' seventh La Liga title of the millennium and their first in three years as Zidane won his 11th title with the Spanish capital club.
Since the turn of the century, Real Madrid have won 30 titles in various competitions, with Zidane alone accounting for 11 of these honours.
Under Zidane, Real Madrid have often triumphed when the tide of momentum hasn't always been with them. An instance in this regard is the Merengues' La Liga triumph this season.
When La Liga resumed after the COVID-19 outbreak, Real Madrid trailed defending champions Barcelona by two points and knew that they had no room for error. And the Merengues embarked on a 10-game winning run to transform their two-point deficit to an unassailable seven-point advantage with one game remaining.
Let us put into context what Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid did during this period.
Real Madrid won all ten games since the La Liga restart. Not all these wins have been pleasing to the eye, but Madrid under Zidane have learnt to churn out results by not always focussing on attractive football.
During this period, Real Madrid have kept an impressive six clean sheets and won three successive games by a 1-0 scoreline to pile the pressure on Barcelona. In the process, Zidane reminded everyone that Real Madrid have moved on since their record goal-scorer Cristiano Ronaldo left the capital club two seasons ago.
With his latest trophy for Real Madrid, Zidane has carved out a niche for himself as one of the most successful managers in the sport.
The contrasting fortunes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in a tight title race
When the La Liga resumed after the COVID-19 outbreak, Barcelona were in the driver's seat in the most intense title races in years. The Blaugrana, despite their underwhelming season, led Real Madrid by two points with 11 games remaining.
Barcelona started on the right note, producing wins over Real Mallorca and Leganes without conceding a goal to retain their slender lead over Real Madrid who also won both games after the restart.
Then the goalless draw with Sevilla happened; Barcelona dropped two precious points as Real Madrid moved level with the Blaugrana on points but took top place owing to a superior head-to-head record.
An unconvincing 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao meant that Barcelona kept up the pressure on Real Madrid. But the Blaugrana floundered again, dropping two points apiece in damaging 2-2 draws against Celta Vigo and Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona were now playing catch-up with Real Madrid who refused to drop a point and eventually sealed what could have been a tight title race with a game to spare.
Barcelona manager Quique Setien was so wrong when he said during the La Liga restart that the title race would go down to the wire. Of course, Barcelona conceded the La Liga title, but it did not come as much of a shock. It was in the cards for quite some time now.
In this regard, it must be said that Real Madrid have had decisions in their favour, and the Video Assistant Referee has no doubt played a significant role in their results.
Yet overall, since the post-pandemic restart of the La Liga, Los Blancos deserve credit for being the better and more consistent side. Real Madrid looked more threatening than Barcelona going forward and have also looked like a more cohesive unit than the deposed La Liga winners.
For now, we must take nothing away from Zinedine Zidane's men. We must also not be surprised if, come mid-August, it is Real Madrid who emerge with the UEFA Champions League trophy yet again.
We have seen underwhelming Real Madrid sides winning the biggest prize in European football before, and so we must once again prepare ourselves for that eventuality.
The imposing frame of Cristiano Ronaldo may no longer be there at Real Madrid, but Zidane is a shrewd tactician who will leave no stone unturned to get his team past Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie.
Los Blancos trail 2-1 after their first-leg defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Manchester City will also be buoyed by the fact that The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has lifted their Champions League ban. It should indeed be a mouth-watering contest.
Zidane's contribution to the success of Real Madrid
Zinedine Zidane has worked miracles for Real Madrid after the restart of La Liga football. He has greatly improved Vinicius Junior, and Karim Benzema looks like a Ballon d'Or contender now. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez certainly hopes that the Frenchman lands the much-coveted individual award.
The two key aspects of Real Madrid's success this season have been Zidane's man-management and Sergio Ramos's leadership.
Zidane has handled the often dicey relationship between him and Gareth Bale very effectively. Like a true professional, he has also ensured that detractors shifted their attention from VAR controversies and instead looked at Real Madrid's much-improved performances.
Fans of other clubs have often called Sergio Ramos' selfish' and have accused him of abusing his power as captain by taking penalties. But the 34-year-old has scored from all six penalties he has taken since this season.
In fact, he even scored from a freekick against Real Sociedad. That is an outstanding achievement from a centre-back.
Real Madrid clawed their way back to the top of the La Liga table. Such fighting spirit makes them a formidable opponent in the Champions League now, should they get manage to get past Manchester City.
In 209 competitive matches as coach of Los Blancos, Zinedine Zidane has delivered 11 trophies, which translates to a trophy every 19 games.
Zidane left the Real Madrid top job after winning the 2017-18 Champions League. Julen Lopetegui arrived to replace the Frenchman, but the team's fortunes drastically nosedived. It meant that the Spaniard made an unceremonious exit merely months after facing the sack as the Spain coach days before the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
In came Santiago Solari, but he too failed to transform Real Madrid's fortunes.
Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president, then quickly reinstated the former French World Cup winner as the Merengues changed coaches for the third time in 2018-19.
Although it was too late for Zidane to salvage one of the worst La Liga seasons of Real Madrid in recent memory, the Frenchman ensured that the Spanish capital club qualified for Champions League football the next season.
In 2019-20, Zidane had ample time to build a formidable squad and promptly ended Real Madrid's three-year wait for a La Liga title. Of course, the Frenchman was duly helped by the presence of a leader like Sergio Ramos. But the bulk of the credit for reviving Real Madrid definitely goes to Zidane.
While Real Madrid prospered under Zidane, Barcelona floundered
It would not be an understatement to say that while Real Madrid went from strength to strength under Zinedine Zidane, Barcelona stumbled from pillar to post while trying to win a hat-trick of La Liga titles.
Lionel Messi had another fabulous individual season in the Blaugrana colours. Despite making a belated start to the season, the diminutive Argentinian struck three La Liga hat-tricks and has scored a league-leading 23 goals. As if that was not enough, Messi also contributed with a record-tying 20 assists in the season.
Yet Messi's singular brilliance was not enough to mask Barcelona's shortcomings. The Blaugrana have struggled to score goals this season and have been uncharacteristically sloppy in defence, dropping points in a plethora of games they should have won.
One of the biggest issues afflicting Barcelona is that they do not have a manager of the calibre of Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane at their helm. The sacking of Quique Setien now looks like a distinct possibility despite his arrival in January, yet there is no denying that the rot runs deep at the Catalan giants.
It has often been seen that managers need time to build successful squads. There are many such instances in this regard.
Since his 2015 appointment, Jurgen Klopp took four years to win Liverpool the Champions League and five years to deliver the club's first Premier League title.
Pep Guardiola's success despite having no previous senior managerial experience lulled the Barcelona board into assuming that instant success is achievable when that is surely not the case. Guardiola knew the club from close quarters after spending 11 seasons at the Nou Camp as a midfielder.
Guardiola was a former youth team player for the Blaugrana and knew that there was enough quality at the club's academy to trust upon rather than going for mindless expensive acquisitions.
Similarly, Zinedine Zidane had also bided his time as a Real Madrid player before assuming the manager's role at the club. During five years at the club, from 2001 to 2006, Zidane scored one of the most iconic goals in the club's history to deliver Real Madrid's ninth Champions League title.
Zidane's goal in the 2002 Champions League final for Real Madrid against Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park still gives goosebumps to ardent football lovers.
Because he is aware of the inner workings at the club, Zidane hit the ground running after first assuming the role of Real Madrid's manager. Not surprisingly, the Frenchman also tasted success during his second stint at the helm of the Merengues.
In stark contrast, Quique Setien does not know about Barcelona in the same vein. To make matters worse, he arrived in the middle of the campaign as a safety-valve to salvage the season but has only managed to exacerbate the mood in the dressing room.
It remains to be seen how both Real Madrid and Barcelona fare in their respective Round of 16 second-leg clashes in the Champions League. If recent form is anything to go by, Real Madrid look like the more potent side. It is the Zizou effect, something that Barcelona do not have right now.
