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The 2024/25 European football season has been a wild ride, and with just a handful of games remaining, most of the continent's top league titles have already been wrapped up. Liverpool became Premier League champions for the second time in five years, snapping Manchester City's streak of four on the spin with a dominant campaign led by the talismanic Mohamed Salah. In Germany, Bayern Munich have returned to claim their throne following Bayer Leverkusen's invincible triumph last season, while Paris Saint-Germain are again champions of France.
However, there are still two of Europe's top league titles that remain unclaimed as we head into the latter weeks of the season. Those are, of course, Serie A and La Liga, and there were twists and turns aplenty in both leagues this weekend. Let's take a look at what went down and who will emerge as champions.
Barcelona Thump Real Madrid To Put One Hand On the Trophy
The storied El Clásico rivalry is one of the planet's fiercest. Capital vs Catalonia. Royalty vs Wantaway State. It truly has it all.
This year, the two Spanish giants are going head to head for the La Liga title, and sports betting sites clearly feel that Barcelona now have one hand on the trophy following a 5-3 drubbing over their greatest rivals at the Olympic Stadium. The latest odds from top sports betting sites now have the Blaugrana listed as a mightily short 1/1000, but it could have been so very different.
Heading into the clash in Catalonia, Real Madrid were four points adrift of their rivals, and they knew that only victory would do if they truly wanted to defend their La Liga title. It looked as though they would be up to the task when they raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to Kylian Mbappe's early brace. But the Blaugrana came roaring back to life.
Eric Garcia pulled one back for the hosts five minutes after Mbappe's second, and that was enough to kick his team into gear. Two goals in two minutes from the sensational Lamine Yamal and Raphinha shortly after the half-hour mark suddenly gave Barca the lead, before Raphinha's second just before the break handed them a scarcely believable 4-2 lead.
Once the second half got underway, it was more one-way traffic as Los Blancos simply looked inferior to their arch enemy. Despite that, Barca couldn't get a fifth goal, and Real pulled one back with 20 minutes remaining to set up a nervy finish. But even so, Barca remained in control, and they walked away from this huge six-pointer with a 4-3 win, putting them seven points clear of Real with just three games remaining, and all but sealing the title.
Napoli Slip Up In Scudetto Race
Over in Italy, all the pressure was on Inter Milan. After beating Barcelona in the midweek to punch their tickets to the UEFA Champions League final, it was to be expected that there might be some fatigue for their Serie A trip to Torino. Manager Simone Inzaghi anticipated this and heavily rotated his side, running the risk of dropping further points and handing an even bigger advantage to table-toppers Napoli.
In the end, though, it proved to be a masterstroke. The Nerazzurri managed to secure a 2-0 victory in Turin thanks to goals from Nicola Zalewski and Kristjan Asllani, two players who wouldn't usually be in the starting eleven. That piled the pressure on Napoli, and ultimately, they crumbled.
The Partenopei were full strength and fully rested for their clash at home against lowly Genoa, and all was going according to plan when Romelu Lukaku netted an early opener. Patrick Vieira's side, however, have built up somewhat of a never-say-die attitude this season, and the visitors equalized on the half-hour mark thanks to an own goal from Napoli's keeper Alex Meret.
Napoli came out swinging in the second half, and once again, they hit the front when Giacomo Raspadori bagged in the 64th minute. However, six minutes from full time, disaster struck when Johan Vazquez nodded home from a pinpoint cross to hand his side a share of the spoils. The 2-2 draw means that Napoli are now just one point ahead of Inter with two games to play, and the Scudetto remains in the balance.
Elsewhere In Europe
Outside of the top five leagues, there are still two major fights that look set to go down to the wire. In Portugal, Lisbon giants Sporting and Benfica are level on points with one game remaining. The two faced off against each other in the penultimate game of the season, and Benfica's second-half equalizer through Kerem Aktürkoğlu has kept his side's title hopes alive. They now must win at Braga on the final day of the campaign and hope Sporting drop points against Vitoria Guimaraes to have any hope of becoming champions.
In the Netherlands, another wild day was unfolding. It looked as though Ajax would be crowned champions as their main title rivals PSV Eindhoven trailed fellow heavyweights Feyenoord by two goals to nil in the early kick-off. However, the reigning champions rallied in the second half, overturning the deficit and winning 3-2 courtesy of Noah Lang's 99th-minute winner. Then, in Amsterdam, the table-toppers conspired to lose 3-0 at home to midtable NEC, meaning their lead in the title race was slashed to just one point.