The La Liga title has returned to Madrid at last after Los Blancos came back from football’s enforced break stronger than Barcelona.
The Catalans looked, for much of the season, like champions again; searching for a third successive title and the La Liga 2020 betting odds backed them for the most part. But in the end Blaugrana captain Leo Messi was left bemoaning his team’s lack of fight while the white half of Madrid celebrated.
Winners
Real Madrid
Having watched Barcelona win six of the last nine league titles, Los Blancos won the 2020 La Liga by five clear points, a great achievement as they returned from the enforced break behind the Catalans. They clinched the title with a 2-1 win over in-form Villarreal as Karim Benzema netted his 21st goal of the season.
Zinedine Zidane’s side has been clinical rather than spectacular, winning six of their last ten victories by the odd goal, skipper Sergio Ramos converting late penalties in back to back 1-0 wins against Getafe and Athletic Bilbao.
Fans at the Bernabeu will hope Zidane at least sees out the remaining two years of his contract, but the Frenchman has yet to commit his future beyond the end of this season.
His immediate task is to rally his team when Los Blancos try to overturn a first leg deficit in their Champions League Round of 16 clash against Manchester City.
Atletico Madrid
It’s been a difficult season for Diego Simeone’s Atleti. For the majority of the campaign they were outside or on the edge of the top four places, but a strong finish has seen them end up in a familiar top three spot.
Los Rojiblancos were already looking like their old selves when they took a point off Barcelona, at the end of June, which put a dent in the Blaugrana’s title hopes. Three wins and a draw have seen them qualify for the Champions League again with something to spare.
Here at SBOBET we’ll be watching their progress in this season’ Champions League after they put in an impressive performance to beat last season’s winners Liverpool.
Villarreal
Five wins in their first six games back after the restart saw Villarreal shoot up the table and end up in fifth place. It’s a good comeback after a poor season in 2018/19 and they are back in the Europa League again.
Striker Gerard Moreno was the third highest scorer in La Liga, behind Messi and Karim Benzema, and he bagged a brace in the Yellow Submarine’s final game against Eibar as they ran out 4-0 winners.
Villarreal will be saying goodbye to fans’ favourite Santi Cazorla. The former Arsenal midfield star is heading off to Qatar to join Al Sadd.
Losers
Barcelona
The Blaugrana were favourites to win La Liga again, particularly as Real Madrid were in some disarray in the previous close season. But the capture of Antoine Griezmann hasn’t yet paid off while an injury to Luis Suarez hindered their progress.
Former manager Ernesto Valverde was potted in January and replaced by Quique Setien which was a surprise to us all, and that has certainly backfired.
After a humiliating defeat to ten-man Osasuna Messi said: “We didn’t expect to finish in this way, but it sums up the year for us. We are a weak team. We need to be self critical, starting with the players, but also across the entire club. We are Barcelona, and we are obliged to win every game.”
Ouch!
Messi won the Golden Boot of course, but the Argentine superstar would swap that for another league title in the blink of an eye.
Espanyol
Last season Espanyol finished seventh and have been contesting the Europa League for the first time since 2007. But a squad that should have stayed up comfortably has failed to deliver and so they head to the Segunda Division for the first time since 1994.
It didn’t help matters that neighbours Barcelona were the team to confirm Espanyol’s relegation with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Luis Suarez strike in the second half. That the Blaugrana struggled to beat the bottom side speaks volumes.
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