It’s been another busy weekend of European football, so here’s a recap of all the results, stories and talking points from La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and beyond.
La Liga
Real Madrid were crowned La Liga champions for the 36th time on Saturday, no club in any of Europe’s top-six leagues has more, picking up their ninth title of the 21st century.
Carlo Ancelotti heavily rotated for the visit of Cádiz, given that this came in-between the two legs against Bayern Munich, but they still cruised to a 3-0 victory.
Brahim Díaz, Jude Bellingham and Joselu got the goals, while Thibaut Courtois was back in goal, featuring for the first time in 335 days having sat out, almost, the entire season due to an ACL injury.
Straight after, in the Catalan derby at Montilivi, Girona then handed Real Madrid the title, courtesy of a thrilling 4-2 victory over Barcelona.
This game, in of itself, was an absolute thriller, 1-1 within three and a half minutes, thanks to a stunning strike from Andreas Christensen, only for Artem Dovbyk to equalise within ten seconds of kick off.
By half time, Barça led 2-1, Robert Lewandowski converting a penalty, with Xavi’s team putting together a competent performance that was seemingly going to lead them to victory.
Well, it all then fell apart, with Blanquivermells scoring thrice in nine minutes soon after the hour mark, with substitute Portu on target twice, the second of which was a van Basten-esque volley, while Miguel Gutiérrez got the go-ahead goal in-between.
This victory mathematically secured Champions League qualification for Míchel’s men which, despite their CFG ownership, is a remarkable achievement, considering this is only Girona’s fourth top-flight campaign to date.
In this one, Girona become only the sixth club to score 4+ against Barcelona both home and away within the same season: Real Madrid (1929/30), Espanyol (1929/30), Atlético Madrid (1940/41), Valencia (1941/42) and Salamanca (1997/98) the others.
Looking around the league, with four games still to go, everything already appears pretty set in stone.
Atlético Madrid won an away game on Saturday night, something of a novelty for them, beating Mallorca 1-0, with Rodrigo Riquelme’s fifth minute goal enough to secure victory at Son Moix.
This maintains the six-point gap between los Colchoneros and Athletic Club in fifth, after Ernesto Valverde’s team had beaten Getafe 2-0, thanks to Iñaki Williams’ brace at the Coliseum, as the Lions ended the match down to nine-men, shown multiple red cards in a match for the first time in 13 years.
Basque rivals Real Sociedad are also on course to join them in the Europa League, remaining sixth courtesy of a 2-0 win over Las Palmas at Anoeta.
On the flip side, this simply continued García Pimienta’s team’s horrendous form; Las Palmas failed to win any of their first five, then won ten of 19, but are now winless in ten, losing seven on the spin, scoring just a solitary goal since 2 March.
Real Betis remain seventh, just two points below Real Sociedad, taking a big step towards another season of European qualification by beating Osasuna 2-0 at El Sadar, with Ayoze Pérez and Pablo Fornals scoring.
Given that Villarreal were beaten 3-2 by Celta Vigo and Valencia lost at home to Alavés, both shock results, the gap between Betis in seventh and los Che in eighth is now five points, with the race for Europe evaporating fast.
That victory at Mestalla means Alavés have moved up to 11th, with los Blanquiazules claiming victory in three successive top-flight matches without conceding for only the second time, previously achieving this in 2000.
The only games we’re yet to mention both took place simultaneously on Sunday night; are we sure that’s allowed in La Liga?
Sevilla swatted aside Granada 3-0, meaning los Nervionenses have now won four of their last five at Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, despite winning only four of their previous 18 home league fixtures.
For Granada, given that they are 11 points from safety with four games to go, their relegation can be confirmed before they’re next in action, if Mallorca beat Las Palmas in Saturday’s early kick off.
At the same time, Almería defeated Rayo Vallecano 1-0 at Vallecas, with Anthony Lozano the match-winner.
In case you missed this game for any reason, to give you some idea of how it went, goalkeeper Luís Maximiano made ten saves, the most by any La Liga goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet this season, while Rayo had ten shots on target, the most by any team without scoring in La Liga for over three years.
Real Madrid to win a 15th UEFA Champions League trophy
Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich
Serie A
In contrast to their Spanish counterparts, it’s all to play for in Serie A, well aside from the title race which was decided along time ago.
Champions Inter though were involved in, possibly, the most important result of the weekend, beaten 1-0 by relegation-threatened Sassuolo on Saturday night, with Armand Laurienté the match-winner.
So, amazingly, I Nerazzurri have lost only twice in the league all season, both times against the side currently second-bottom.
On the flip side, as alluded to, I Neroverdi do remain 19th, but are now just three points from safety with three games to go.
Udinese, now led by Fabio Cannavaro, are also fighting for their lives, with Napoli visiting Udine on Monday night, an important game for I Partenopei too, considering they’re now outside the European places.
Everyone in the bottom half, who’s been in action so far, put, at least, a point on the board this weekend, with Frosinone and Empoli, the two sides just above the drop zone, drawing 0-0, giving hope to those currently in the danger zone.
The headline fixture of the weekend came from Stadio Olimpico, where Roma and Juventus draw 1-1, with Romelu Lukaku breaking the deadlock, only for Bremer to equalise soon after.
La Vecchia Signora have now drawn four on the spin, doing so for the first time in 12 years, meaning they’ve won only two of their last 14, with Massimiliano Allegri’s team rather limping to the end of the season.
As for Roma, following their 2-0 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League semi-finals, the return fixture at BayArena is coming up this week, they could miss out on the Champions League via both domestic and European routes.
Daniele De Rossi’s side are fifth, clinging onto the last Champions League spot, but Atalanta are only three points behind with two games in hand, the first of which is against rock bottom Salernitana tonight.
The other, against Fiorentina, is proving to be a real scheduling headache, given that la Dea are through to the Coppa Italia Final and, possibly, the Europa League Final too, while I Viola could feature in the Europa Conference League Final too, so no idea when they’re going to meet!
Lastly, Bologna remain fourth, despite yet another draw with Torino on Friday night, while Lazio’s top five hopes suffered another set-back, held to a 2-2 draw by Monza.
Atalanta to win
Atalanta vs Olympique Marseille
Fiorentina to qualify
Club Brugge vs Fiorentina
Italian teams to reach the finals
UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League
Bundesliga
It was a weekend so, as is becoming an inevitability these days, Bayer Leverkusen were not beaten.
Well, Xabi Alonso’s side did much more than that on Sunday, smashing Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1, with Granit Xhaka, Patrik Schick and Jeremie Frimpong all on target, while Exequiel Palacios and Victor Boniface both converted second half spot-kicks at Waldstadion.
Die Schwarzroten are now unbeaten in 48 matches across all competitions, and counting, equalling the European record set by Benfica in the mid-1960s, just five games away from completing an unbeaten, treble-winning campaign.
Aside from the newly-crowned Deutscher Fußballmeister, the other four Champions League positions have also been wrapped up this week, with fifth-placed Borussia Dortmund hammering Augsburg 5-1.
On Friday, Marco Reus announced he will leave the club after 12 seasons this summer, before scoring on Saturday, so can die Schwarzgelben now reach the Champions League Final with a result in Paris on Tuesday?
Bayern Munich, who are also prioritising the Champions League, were beaten 3-1 at Stuttgart, with late goals from Jeong Woo-yeong and Silas Katompa Mvumpa snatching victory for the hosts.
Die Schwaben, who are now just two points behind die Rekordmeister, are already 34-points better off than last season, which represents the biggest increase from one campaign to the next by any side in Bundesliga history, with Sebastian Hoeneß's side Champions League bound, having survived in the relegation play-offs 12 months ago.
The last top five team to mention are RB Leipzig, who were held to a 1-1 draw at Hoffenheim on Friday, with Benjamin Šeško on target for a fifth successive match.
Speaking of Hoffenheim, the occupy eighth, the last potential European spot, a point below Freiburg, while Augsburg, Werder Bremen and Heidenheim are also in the hunt for European qualification.
At the bottom, Darmstadt are down and Köln are doomed, with die Geißböcke only mustering a goalless draw against Freiburg, meaning they’re five points below the play-off place and six points from safety, with just two to play.
If Timo Schultz’s team are looking for hope, well the fact Union Berlin, the team currently in the final safety position, are the visitors to RheinEnergieStadion on Saturday, might just provide it.
Die Eisernen clearly aren’t feeling comfortable because, following Sunday’s thrilling 4-3 defeat to Bochum, they sacked manager Nenad Bjelica after just 22 games in charge, clearly concerned about their top-flight status.
Well, Union are only not in the bottom three because Mainz could only draw 1-1 at Heidenheim on Sunday night, so the relegation battle is going to the wire.
Bayer Leverkusen to win the UEFA Europa League
UEFA Europa League
Ligue 1
Just seven matches took place in Ligue 1 this weekend, with PSG’s trip to Nice and Marseille’s visit to Reims both postponed to allow those teams to prepare for their respective UEFA semi-finals.
In the race for European football next season, there’s a huge match taking place on Monday night, as LOSC Lille welcome Olympique Lyonnais to Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Should Lille win that one, they’d move up to third above Brest, after Eric Roy’s team could only manage a draw with Nantes on Saturday night.
Worth noting, there were no fixtures played on Sunday 5 May to mark the anniversary of the Stade Armand-Cesari disaster.
So, earlier on Saturday, Monaco smashed Clermont Foot 4-1 at Stade Louis II, Wissam Ben Yedder bagging a brace, securing Champions League qualification for les Monégasques, who need one more victory to be sure of a top three finish, rather than entering qualifying as the fourth-placed finisher will be forced to do.
Rennes moved up to seventh, following a 3-2 win at Metz, while Lens are sixth, after their victory over Lorient back on Friday night.
In the relegation battle, Clermont will remain in the bottom three, with their only hope of avoiding the drop to finish the play-off spot, but even that is likely to be beyond them.
Lorient too look doomed, while Metz complete the relegation zone, after all three were beaten, albeit Le Havre and Nantes are still nervously looking over their shoulders.
Paris Saint-Germain to qualify after 90 minutes
Paris Saint-Germain vs Borussia Dortmund
Anything else?
Champions crowned in Portugal and Netherlands
Champions were crowned in both the Netherlands and Portugal this weekend, although the identities of both were known for some time.
According to the latest UEFA Coefficient rankings, the Eredivisie is the sixth-best league in Europe, so we’ll start there, with PSV Eindhoven crowned champions for the 25th time following a 4-2 win over Sparta Rotterdam on Sunday.
Peter Bosz’s team have been simply unstoppable this season, winning 28 of 32 league matches, losing just one, needing a victory in either of their final two games to break the single-season points record, currently held by Ajax in 97/98.
Over in Portugal, Sporting CP picked up their 20th title, albeit this is just their fourth in 42 years, most-recently crowned champions in 2002 prior to Rúben Amorim leading them to glory in 2021 and again this year.
The Leões hammered Portimonense 3-0 on Saturday, Viktor Gyökeres bagging his 41st of the season, before the party started on Sunday night, when fierce rivals Benfica were beaten 2-0 by Famalicão.
With Portugal now only getting two Champions League spots, losing one to the Eredivisie, Porto, who can finish no higher than third, will not feature in Europe’s top-tier competition, including qualifiers, for the first time since 2010/11, albeit André Villas-Boas’ side did win the treble, including the Europa League, that year.
Speaking of AVB, he was elected FC Porto’s new president back on 27 April, ending Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa’s 42-year reign in that position.
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