With an 11-point advantage over second-placed Atletico Madrid, Barcelona are clear favourites to secure the La Liga title this season.

Not only have their maintained the best defence in the league but they also boast the most prolific attacking record, scoring 74 goals so far, one more than perennial rivals Real Madrid.

However, they could’ve had so much more this term if not for the frame of the goal.

Incredibly, the Catalans have hit the woodwork a whopping 29 times in the league alone this season. That figure doesn’t just surpass that of any other team in Europe’s top five leagues, it does so by miles!

The other teams to hit the woodwork most often are Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain and Serie A outfit Inter Milan – all doing so 17 times each.

Barcelona have every right to feel aggrieved as that means they have struck the frame of the goal a massive 12 times more than any other big European team.

Lionel Messi has been responsible for a few extra coats of paint by himself around Spain. The division’s leading scorer with 25 strikes would’ve been out of sight in the Pichichi race had he not hit the woodwork 11 times on his own in the current league campaign.

Meanwhile in the Premier League, Manchester City and Liverpool have endured their fair share of misfortune in front of goal having been denied by the woodwork 16 times each.