La Liga

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, DFB-Pokal, Coupe de France Final and beyond. Given that quite literally everything had already been decided ahead of the final weekend of the La Liga season, there was very little on the line, but some entertaining matches still took place. On Friday night, Girona bookended an historic campaign by hammering already relegated Granada 7-0 at Montilivi with Artem Dovbyk’s hat-trick in that one, featuring two penalties, enough to see him end the campaign as La Liga’s top-scorer, making him the first non-Barça or Real Pichichi winner for 16 years. Blanquivermells, who will be in the Champions League next season, won 25 games this season, the most of any side (excluding Barça, Real or Atleti), in a Primera División campaign since Valencia in 94/95. In a far less eventful game on Saturday night, Real Madrid prepared for next weekend’s Champions League Final with a rather drab goalless draw against Real Betis at the Bernabéu. Los Blancos, who only lost one league game all season, also kept 21 clean sheets, a new club record, surpassing the 19 shutouts they kept in 86/87, 87/88 and 19/20. Xavi waved goodbye to Barcelona on Sunday night, after their 2-1 victory over Sevilla, in which Robert Lewandowski and then Fermín López were the scorers at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. Rounding out the top four, Atlético Madrid have now won three successive La Liga away games, having claimed victory in just two of the previous 11 on the road, this time leaving Anoeta 2-0 winners, thanks to goals from Samu Lino and then Reinildo. Defeated Real Sociedad join Athletic Club, who won 1-0 at Vallecas, in the Europa League and, with next season’s final at San Mamés, an all-Basque final could be on the cards; a man can dream! Real Betis are UEFA Conference League bound and, given that they essentially forfeited their tie against GNK Dinamo Zagreb in that competition in February, with the stadium less than half full for the home leg, it’ll be interesting to see how seriously Manuel Pellegrini’s team will take the tournament. At the bottom, we already knew that Andalusian trio Cádiz, Granada and Almería were doomed to the drop, with Almería, who’ve been bottom all season, climbing off the foot of the table at the last. That’s because, remarkably, la Unión smashed Cádiz 6-1 on Saturday, Sergio Arribas and Luis Suárez both bagging braces, meaning 15.79% of all the goals they scored this season came in the space of 38 minutes at Estadio de los Juegos Mediterráneos at the weekend. It’s also the first time ever Almería have scored six times in a top-flight match; very much too little too late. Speaking of the Segunda División, ahead of their final day on Sunday, Real Valladolid secured promotion, with Leganés requiring just a point at home to Elche to join them. Eibar, Espanyol Real Oviedo and Racing Santander look set to compete in the play-offs, although Sporting Gijón could still sneak in. The Segunda play-offs don’t conclude until 23 June, by which time 24 European Championship matches will have taken place, with this the same day the final round of group games gets underway; pure madness how late they finish! Over in Serie A, Sunday night produced a dramatic relegation battle, with two of the three clubs in danger down going head-to-head. Empoli kicked off in the drop zone, spending the majority of the night there too, taking an early lead through Matteo Cancellieri, only for visitors Roma to equalise in first half stoppage time in Tuscany. Simultaneously, the two clubs just above the dreaded dotted line met at Stadio Benito Stirpe and there was nothing to seperate them until, with 15 minutes to play, substitute Keinan Davis struck for I Bianconeri. This goal would keep Udinese up, while Frosinone were set to survive as well, until news filtered through that Empoli had scored, with M’Baye Niang firing them 2-1 ahead at Stadio Carlo Castellani in the 93rd minute. Panic set in, but Frosinone were unable to find an all-important equaliser, or rely on a favour from Roma, so I Canarini were relegated at the last, having began the day 16th, joining Sassuolo and Salernitana in Serie B. In contrast, this is the third time Davide Nicola has pulled-off a great escape, having previously kept Crotone and Salernitana up in unlikely circumstances, with Empoli the beneficiaries of his magic this time. Coming up from the second-tier are Parma and Como, while Cremonese take on Venezia in this week’s play-off final, with the first leg on Thursday, before the decider at the Pier Luigi Penzo on Sunday night. Elsewhere, in the race for Europe, recently-crowned Europa League winners Atalanta beat Torino 2-0, securing a top four finish for la Dea, with Bologna making the most of the bonus fifth Champions League spot. Despite defeat in Bergamo, it was still a good day for Torino, who clung onto ninth place, above Napoli on head-to-head, as I Partenopei were held to a goalless draw by Lecce concurrently. By finishing tenth, Napoli have put in the worst Scudetto-defence of any side in Italian football history. For Torino, they’ll be cheering on Fiorentina this forthcoming Wednesday because, if I Viola beat Olympiacos in the Europa Conference League Final, Il Toro will qualify for next season’s UEFA Conference League, with Vincenzo Italiano’s team joining the two Rome clubs in the Europa League. Juventus beat Monza 2-0, with la Vecchia Signora set to appoint now former Bologna boss Thiago Motta, while AC Milan are also searching for a new manager, after Stefano Pioli waved farewell to San Siro following their chaotic 3-3 draw with Salernitana. Lastly, Internazionale’s 2-2 draw with Hellas Verona meant they ended the campaign 19 points clear of second place, the second largest gap between first and second in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win-era, only behind Inter themselves in 06/07 (22 points). The DFB-Pokal Final took centre-stage on Saturday night, with Bayer Leverkusen completing an undefeated domestic campaign, and with it a double. It wasn’t a classic, although Olympiastadion did witness an amazing goal, the only one of the night scored by Granit Xhaka, an absolute rocket flying past Julian Krahl with just a quarter of an hour played. Bayer defender Odilon Kossounou was sent off by referee Bastian Dankert on the cusp of half time, giving second division Kaiserslautern hope but, in truth, Friedhelm Funkel’s team rarely looked like scoring. Die Werkself were nervy at times, which is understandable, considering they’d been smashed 3-0 in the Europa League Final on Wednesday, but an undefeated domestic-double isn’t bad, considering they’d only ever won a single domestic trophy, the Pokal in ‘93, prior to this season. In fact, die Schwarzroten have become only the fifth club to win the Meisterschale and Pokal in the same season, after Bayern Munich (13 occasions), Köln (1978), Werder Bremen (2004) and Borussia Dortmund (2012). Triumph in Berlin was a fitting way for Xabi Alonso’s side to conclude an historic season, with many saying Bayer are the team to beat again next year. This result was also good news in terms of European qualification for two other Bundesliga sides, with Hoffenheim joining Eintracht Frankfurt in next season’s Europa League. Far more interestingly, in their debut top division campaign, Heidenheim managed to finish eighth, which will see them feature in the UEFA Conference League, a remarkable feat for Frank Schmidt’s team, who were in the Oberliga Baden-Württemberg (fifth-tier) when he took over in 2007. Heidenheim are just the third team in Bundesliga history to qualify for Europe in their debut season, after Wuppertaler SV (4th in 1973) and RB Leipzig (2nd in 2017), although this is a true fairytale, unlike the latter. The German fußball campaign concludes this evening (Monday), with the second leg of the relegationsspielen. Given that Fortuna Düsseldorf hammered Bochum 3-0 in Thursday’s first leg, the biggest first leg away win in these play-offs for 15 years, Merkur Spiel-Arena will be in celebratory mood, with the Flingeraner’s four-year exile from the Bundesliga set to come to an end, baring an historic remontada from die Unabsteigbaren. Saturday was also cup final night in France, with Paris Saint-Germain picking up a record-extending 15th Coupe de France, seven of which have come since 2015. The final was played at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, the first final to be played outside Paris, or its suburbs, in the 107 year history of the competition, as the city prepares for the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, les Parisiens raced into a 2-0 first half lead in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, thanks to goals from Ousmane Dembélé and then Fabián Ruiz. Irish defender Jake O’Brien did get Olympique Lyonnais back into it soon after the interval, but les Gones could not find an equaliser, meaning Lyon’s wait for a first major trophy since 2012 goes on. This though, is not the end of the French football season, with one spot in next season’s Ligue 1 still up for grabs. Could Lyon’s fierce rivals Saint-Étienne be returning to the top-flight? Well, les Verts’ promotion hopes are still alive, following Friday night’s 2-0 play-off semi-final win over Rodez. This forthcoming Thursday, Saint-Étienne welcome Metz to Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for the first leg of the play-off final, before the pair reconvene at Stade Saint-Symphorien on Sunday. Les Stéphanois themselves were relegated via the play-offs two years ago, the only Ligue 1 team to taste defeat in the play-offs since 2017, hoping to flip the script this time.