Barcelona were on Saturday night crowned the 2018/19 Spanish La Liga Champions following a 1-0 win over Levante at the Camp Nou.
After a frustrating goalless first half, substitute Lionel Messi scored the all-important winner on 62 minutes, in a game that Barcelona were made to work all night long.
The three points earned see Barcelona march onto 83 points for the season, 9 ahead of second placed Atletico Madrid with only 3 games to play. With the Catalans holding a better head to head record on the Madrid club, they were crowned champions of Spain for the 8th time in 11 years.
Atletico on the other hand were also in action on the same day and required a Joaquin Fernandez second half own goal, to defeat Real Valladolid 1-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Victory for Atletico was their 22nd of the season, seeing them move to 74 points this campaign.
For third placed Real Madrid, they continued their miserable season as they went down 1-0 away to city rivals Rayo Vallecano.
Andri Embarba scored the game’s lone goal through the spot after 23 minutes, one that Real never recovered from in the end. Real remain third on the log with 65 points from 35 games.
In the race for Champions League football, none of Getafe (4th), Sevilla (5th), Valencia (6th) or Athletic Bilbao (7th) were victorious this past weekend.
Getafe went down 2-1 away to Real Sociedad, Sevilla were defeated 1-0 at Girona, Valencia lost 1-0 at home to Eibar while Bilbao drew 1-1 with Deportivo Alves.
Getafe are still on 55 points, level with Sevilla while Valencia have 52, two ahead of Bilbao.
In the German Bundesliga, the top two of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund all failed to win this past weekend.
Dortmund were defeated 4-2 away to rivals Schalke 04 on Saturday while the defending champions drew 1-1 away to Nuremberg the following day.
Lucien Favre’s side who saw both Marco Rues and Marious Wolf sent off, scored their goals through Mario Gotze and Axel Witsel but could not contain a rampant Schalke side that struck through Daniel Caliguiri *2, Salif Sane and Breel Embolo.
For Bayern, they required a Serge Gnabry 75th minute equalizer to earn a point off a resilient Nuremberg side who took the lead three minutes after the recess through Matheus Pereira.
Bayern are still top of the standings with 71 points, two ahead of Dortmund, with just three games to play.
Leipzig who are third sealed a spot in the Champions League next season after a hard fought 2-1 win at home to Freigburg. Timo Werner and Emile Forsberg each struck once either side of a Vicenzo Grifo goal for Freigburg, to seal a second successive Champions League spot for the Red Bull financed side.
In the race for the remaining champions league spot, Frankfurt (4th) were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Hertha Berlin, Monchengladbach (5th) lost 1-0 away to Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen (6th) were 4-1 winners away to Augsburg while Hoffenheim (7th) lost 4-1 at home to Wolfsburg (8th).
Elsewhere, Fortuna Dusseldorf defeated Bremen 4-1 while bottom side Hannover 96 also registered a rare victory, overcoming Mainz 05 1-0 at home.
In the French Ligue One, Lille edged closer to sealing Champions League football as the thrashed Nimes 5-0 on Sunday.
Loic Remy, Jonathan Bamba, Nicholas Pepe, Mehmet Celick and Rui Fonte all scored once in the victory that sees Clement Gualtier’s side move onto 68 points for the season.
With PSG not in action this past weekend, Lille are now 16 points behind the Champions.
In the battle for third, Lyon came from 2-1 down to overcome Bordeaux 3-2 away from home, Saint Etienne were 2-0 winners at home to Toulouse while Marseille lost 2-1 at home to Nantes.
Lyon remain third on the standings with 62 points, Saint Etienne are 4th with 59 points while Marseille are still 5th on 54 points.
Elsewhere, Nice thumped Guingamp 3-0 and Caen were 1-0 winners over Dijon in a relegation six pointer.
In the Italian Serie A, Juventus and Inter Milan drew 1-1 in the Derby d’Italia match played at the Guiseppe Meazza Stadium on Saturday.
Radja Nainggolan put the hosts ahead inside 7 minutes but Christiano Ronaldo equalized for Juventus in the second half to ensure that both sides share the spoils in an epic encounter.
The result sees Juventus march onto 88 points at the top of the table while Inter remain third on 62.
For second placed Napoli, they moved to 70 points for the season thanks to a 2-0 win away to Frosinone on Sunday. Dries Mertens and Amin Younus scored the goals for Carlo Anchelotti’s side.
In the race for Champions League football, 4th placed Rome secured a 3-0 win over Cagliari, AC Milan (5th) lost 2-0 away to Torino (7th) while Lazio (8th) were 2-1 winners at Sampdoria.
Elsewhere, only Bologna who defeated Empoli 3-1 on Saturday, were the other winners over the past weekend.
Results from the La Liga
-Bilbao 1-1 Alaves
-Atletico Madrid 1-0 Real Valladolid
-Leganes 0-0 Celta Vigo
-Barcelona 1-0 Levante
-Valencia 0-1 Eibar
-Girona 1-0 Sevilla
-Sociedad 2-1 Getafe
-Villarreal 1-1 Huesca
-Rayo Vallecano 1-0 Real Madrid
*Real Betis vs Espanyol 29-04-2019
Results from the Bundesliga
-Augsburg 1-4 Leverkusen
-Leipzig 2-1 Freiburg
-Dortmund 2-4 Schalke
-Frankfurt 0-0 Hertha Berlin
-Hannover 1-0 Mainz
-Dusseldorf 4-1 Bremen
-Stuttgart 1-0 Monchengladbach
-Hoffenheim 1-4 Wolfsburg
-Nuremberg 1-1 Bayern
Results from the Ligue One
-Bordeaux 2-3 Lyon
-Amiens 0-0 Strasbourg
-Angers 1-1 Reims
-Caen 1-0 Dijon
-Lille 5-0 Nimes
-Nice 3-0 Guingamp
-Saint Etienne 2-0 Toulouse
-Marseille 1-2 Nantes
*Montpeliier vs PSG 30-04-2019
*Rennes vs Monaco 01-05-2019
Results from the Serie A
-Bologna 3-1 Empoli
-Roma 3-0 Cagliari
-Inter Milan 1-1 Juventus
-Frosinone 0-2 Napoli
-SPAL 1-1 Genoa
-Chievo 1-1 Parma
-Sampdoria 1-2 Lazio
-Torino 2-0 AC Milan
*Atalanta vs Udinese 29-04-2019
*Fiorentina vs Sassoulo 29-04-2019
