Pre-Real Championship and the defeat of Barcelona
The main intrigue of the penultimate round of the championship of Spain was whether Real would draw up an early victory in La Liga. To do this, he needed to beat Villarreal, who continues to fight for a ticket to the Europa League, or to hope that Barcelona will lose points in the home game against Osasuna. Zinedine Zidane's team did not rely on the competitor and achieved victory in his match. The author of the double was Karim Benzema, which allowed him to score the 21st goal and reduce the backlog of Lionel Messi in the scorer race. The Frenchman also set a personal record for the first time in his career scoring more than 20 goals in two consecutive seasons. In this case, initially the second accurate shot was supposed to be the result of a bizarre 11-meter draw with the participation of Sergio Ramos, but the attacking hosts ran into the box too early. As a result, the standard had to be re-executed.
In the end, “Villarreal” reduced the backlog by the efforts of Vicente Iborra and nearly restored parity, but Thibaut Courtois performed a couple of incredible saves. This allowed Real to win the Spanish championship for the 34th time and bring the total number of trophies won to the 91st. By this indicator, the royal club caught up with Barcelona. In addition, a special triumph for several football players. So, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo came out on the second place in the history of the club in the number of titles (22), and Zinedine Zidane won 11 cups. In addition, he became the first “creamy” coach since 2006, who managed to take Primera twice. Then this was achieved by Fabio Capello. Previously, this achievement was submitted to six more mentors.
As it became known later, Real Madrid would have taken gold, even if it had not managed to beat Villarreal. In a parallel match, Barcelona lost to Osasuna for the first time since February 11, 2012. And this despite the fact that from the 77th minute the guests played in the minority after the removal of Enrique Gallego - one of ten players who received red cards in the 37th round Examples. It is worth noting that the last time this happened in the top 5 leagues in Europe in 2009. Then ten players were driven out of the field in Serie A.
The author of the only goal in the hosts was Lionel Messi. For the Argentine, he became 23rd in the season and fifth as a result of a direct strike from the free kick. This is more than any of the representatives of the top 5 championships of the continent.
If the first two teams of Examples are already defined, then for the third line the struggle has only escalated. Goals of Marcos Llorente and Thomas Parti helped Atlético beat Getafe away and beat Sevilla by points. In this they were helped by the wards of Julena Lopetegi themselves, who failed to visit the “Real Sociedad” at a party.
Opportunities of competitors took full advantage of Valencia, which returned to the dispute over a ticket to the Europa League. Even the premature departure of Jaume Costa in the 92nd minute did not stop her from beating the main outsider in the face of Espanyol and reducing the gap from the sixth Sociedad to two points. Kevin Gameiro scored his sixth goal of the season, and Denis Cheryshev spent only 18 minutes on the field.
As for the demotion, then in the Spanish Segund, the company “Espanyolu” will definitely be “Mallorca”. In the 37th round, the wards of Vicente Moreno lost to Granada, losing for the seventh time in their last ten meetings. Moreover, in the end they earned two deletions at once. In the 80th minute, Alexander Sedlar received a direct red card, and in the seventh compensated second “yellow card” earned the author of the only goal of the hosts Kucho Hernandez.
The third team leaving the championship will be Celta or Leganes. In the absence of injured Fedor Smolov, the team from Vigo lost to Levante and extended the unbeaten streak to six meetings. This took full advantage of the team of Javier Aguirre, who defeated Athletic on the road. In anticipation of the final round, the Celts are ahead of the competition by just one point. True, on July 19 they will have a match with Espanyol, and their counterpart with Real.
Fighting for fourth place and reaching Walcott
In England, the battle continues for the last ticket to the Champions League, the main contenders for which are Leicester and Manchester United. After an insulting draw with Southampton, Ole-Gunnar Solskher’s team had to hope for another oversight of the opponents, but they interrupted the unsuccessful series and won their first victory in three matches. The team of Brendan Rogers in his field prevailed over Sheffield and retained the fourth line of the standings. Accurate shots from outside the penalty area were recorded by Agios Perez and Demaray Gray.
Manchester United also scored two unanswered goals against Crystal Palace. At first, Marcus Rushford distinguished himself, and then assisted Anthony Martial. Thus, Rushford chalked up the 17th goal of the season.
“Aston Villa” at a party could not cope with “Everton” and complicated the task of maintaining a residence permit in the Premier League. For two rounds to the end, she with 31 points takes the penultimate place in the table and lags behind the saving 17th line by three points. At the 72nd minute, Ezri Kons lit his name on the scoreboard, but after a quarter of an hour Theo Walcott restored the status quo.
The success of Inter and the Belotti series
In Series A, the final matches of the 33rd round took place. In one of them, Inter examined the chief outsider of the SPAL league. Wards of Antonio Conte upset Carlo Letitsa four times and did not allow their vis-a-vis to disturb Samir Handanovich even once. Antonio Kandreva and Roberto Gagliardini once hit the opponent’s goal, and Cristiano Biragi and Alexis Sanchez recorded the ball and the pass. As for the Chilean, after resuming the tournament he scored already eight points (2 + 6).
Inter not only won a second victory in a row, but also revived intrigue in the champion race. At the moment, the gap from the leading Juventus is six points, which is not so much. Especially taking into account the fact that in the last three games the “old signora” scored only two points.
In a battle of outsiders, “Torino” defeated “Genoa” in their field and increased the chances of maintaining a residence permit in the top division of Italian football. For five rounds before the end, he is eight points ahead of the 18th Lecce. One of the main characters of the meeting was Andrea Belotti, who chalked up a goal and a pass.