Soccer Football - La Liga Santander - FC Barcelona v Levante - Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain - April 27, 2019 Barcelona celebrate winning La Liga with the trophy REUTERS/Albert Gea
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Barcelona underlined their hegemony of Spanish football by clinching the La Liga title with three games to spare after Lionel Messi came off the bench to fire them to a 1-0 win over Levante on Saturday in front of a 91,000-strong Nou Camp crowd.
Captain and all-time top scorer Messi hoisted the trophy into the Barcelona sky to signal his side's 26th title overall, their eighth in 11 years, and for the second season in a row, no-one in Spain has come close to competing with the Catalans.
