La Liga Matchday 38 – Real Madrid end five year drought with La Liga victory

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Real Madrid secured the La Liga title with ease on Sunday evening as they saw off Malaga on the south coast. It took Cristiano Ronaldo less than two minutes to round Carlos Kameni to give his side the lead and all but guarantee that the leaders would seal their victory, with Karim Benzema making sure as he prodded home with a second in the second half despite appearing to be narrowly offside.

The victory sparked wild celebrations as Zidane and co. won their first league title since 2012 and only their second since 2008 to make it 33 league titles for the club. Now, after late night celebrations at Cibeles in the city centre of Madrid, los Blancos will turn their attentions to completing a double with a win over Juventus in the Champions League final in Cardiff in June.

At the Nou Camp, Barcelona’s victory was not enough but it was certainly a thrilling game for spectators. Eibar shocked the 75,000 strong crowd with Takashi Inui sneaking in at the far post to fire past Marc-Andre Ter Stegen twice before Barcelona mounted a comeback. In Luis Enrique’s final game at the Nou Camp, David Junca Rene was unfortunate to see the ball cannon off his shins to give Barcelona a way back into the game, before Lionel Messi missed a penalty to deny them the opportunity to draw level. They did do that only three minutes later through Luis Suarez, with Messi not failing twice as he scored from his second penalty before adding a meaningless fourth with a mazy run and smart finish in injury time.

Elsewhere, there were plenty of other matters to be seen to, particularly at the Vicente Calderon where Atletico played their final game at their beloved stadium against Athletic Bilbao in Ernesto Valverde’s last game in charge of the Basque side. It was a fitting end too, as one of the Calderon’s own sons scored a brace with Fernando Torres setting his team on the way to victory, with Angel Correa taking the prize for the final goal at the stadium after Inaki Williams pulled one back.

That presented an opportunity to Real Sociedad, who needed just a point at Celta de Vigo against Eduardo Berrizo’s side days after he confirmed that he too would be stepping down as manager of his team. Iago Aspas gave his side the lead from the penalty spot but Mikel Oyarzabal appeared to do enough when he equalised with eight minutes left on the clock. It turned out not to be though, as Andrew Hjulsager scored with an incredible strike from 25 yards in injury time to give his side the lead again, sparking an even later goal as Juanmi headed home in the 94th minute to earn a sixth placed finish.

Athletic could still qualify if Alaves are beaten by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final, but fifth place belongs to Villarreal as they comfortably overcame Valencia thanks to a goal in the opening minute from Roberto Soldado, with Manu Trigueros and Nicola Sansone adding strikes of their own to cancel out Nani’s equaliser early in the second half in Voro’s last game in charge at Mestalla.

Elsewhere, Osasuna were thrashed 5-0 by Sevilla as they bid goodbye to La Liga, whilst Sporting Gijon held on to a meritable draw against Real Betis but Tony Adams failed to secure even a point during his brief stint as Granada manager as his team fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Quique Sanchez Flores’ Espanyol side on the final day.

You can find the complete listing of results from the final matchday here:

Granada 1-2 Espanyol

Sporting Gijón 2-2 Real Betis

Leganes 1-1 Deportivo Alaves

Deportivo A Coruña 3-0 Las Palmas

Sevilla 5-0 Osasuna

Atletico Madrid 3-1 Athletic Bilbao

Valencia 1-3 Villarreal

Celta Vigo 2-2 Real Sociedad

Barcelona 4-2 Eibar

Malaga 0-2 Real Madrid

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Real Madrid.