Barcelona Retains La Liga Title With 4-0 Win Over Real Valldolid

Barcelona won their 20th Spanish Primera Division title on Sunday, their 4-0 win over Real Valladolid giving them a three point gap over Real Madrid atop this year’s La Liga table.

Barça came into Sunday one point ahead of their Madrid rivals, both teams having already surpassed the record for points in a Primera Division season. With each facing relegation-battling teams, there seemed little drama left in the final match day. In the first half of the match at Camp Nou, Barcelona made sure that ounce of drama was quickly drained out of the story.

In the match’s 29th minute, Valladolid defender Luis Prieto redirected a Pedro cross into his own net, putting the hosts up 1-0. As if there were any doubts as to the validity of their lead, Barcelona quickly added a second, Lionel Messi setting up Pedro four minutes later.

Messi would add two goals of his own in the second half, giving an announced attendance of 98,772 at the Nou Camp their second successive title to celebrate. They were the 31st and 32nd goals of the season for the Argentine attacker, putting him five goals clear in winning this year’s Pichichi as Spain’s leading goal scorer.

The 4-0 result sealed Barcelona’s second straight Spanish title, but as it turned out, Barcelona did not need their victory, with Real Madrid dropping points at the Rosaleda to Málaga.

Málaga entered the day in a four-way tie for 16th and looked set to avoid relegation when they went up in the ninth minute, Felipe Calciedo setting-up Duda for the opening goal.

Real Madrid came close to equalizers from Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo before going into half down 1-0. Rafeal van der Vaart would convert a Marcelo pass two minutes into the second half, but Målaga goalkeeper Gustavo Munua used a number of fine saves to get his team the point they needed to avoid relegation, increasing the gap between Barcelona and Real Madrid to three points.

Málaga would finish in seventeenth place, two points behind Racing Santader, whose 2-0 win over Sporting Gíjon assured they would join Málaga as the two teams that came into this week tied for 16th that would survived into next season.

Valladolid’s loss in Barcelona puts them in the Segunda, as does Tenerife’s 1-0 loss at Valencia. They will join 20th place Xerez, whose 1-1 draw at Osasuna became irrelevant when both Málaga and Racing won points.

But this Spanish season will be remembered less for what happened at the bottom of the league, more for what happened at the top, with Barcelona putting together the most successful season in league history, accumulating 99 points to win their 20th league title.