Barcelona's women suffered their first defeat in 350 days on Sunday, Reuters reported, as Real Sociedad came from behind to claim a 2-1 Liga F victory at Zubieta.
Patri Guijarro put Barcelona ahead inside the opening minute. Cecilia Marcos equalised before Ainhoa Marin completed a memorable comeback for the Basque side.
The result ended Barcelona's 45-game unbeaten run. It was their first defeat since a 1-0 loss to the same opponents last November, which means the sequence began and ended at the hands of Real Sociedad and survived everyone else in between.
Barcelona lost only once last season, a campaign in which they swept the Champions League, Liga F, the Copa de la Reina and the Spanish Super Cup. Sunday's setback was their first of the current one, and it came after they had led inside the opening minute.
They remain top of Liga F with 18 points, two ahead of second-placed Real Madrid, who beat Espanyol 3-1 on Saturday.
Real Sociedad climbed to 11th on eight points, having recorded only their second victory of the season.
For Barcelona the result is a dent in a sequence rather than a threat to a title. They are still two points clear at the top, and the only side to have beaten them in almost a year sits 10 places below them.
That figure is the one the record books will carry, and it is worth noting that it describes the same achievement as the other figure, 45 games, from a different direction.
The arithmetic rewards attention. Forty-five matches spread across 350 days is one fixture roughly every eight days. On the other 305 days Barcelona were also unbeaten, and on the overwhelming majority of them no opponent was available to beat them.
Measured by the calendar, therefore, the run was about 87 per cent idle, and the idle portion was flawless. The close season, during which Liga F does not play at all, is the most productive phase of any unbeaten sequence in Spanish football. A club seeking to extend one should play as little as the fixture list permits.
On the same measure, Real Sociedad have been unbeaten on most days this season too, and are 11th. The Department of Unnecessary Research has written to Liga F to point out that its table is kept in points rather than days, and that this is the only reason the two clubs are 10 places apart.
Barcelona's new unbeaten run began on Monday. It is going well.