For the first time in three seasons and 34th time overall, Real Madrid claimed the La Liga title. Los Blancos won on Thursday by beating Villareal 2-1, giving them a seven-point lead in the standings over Barcelona, with only one game left to play.
Real Madrid won their 10th straight game since the return of Spanish soccer in June. They are now leading the league with 86 points after 36 games.
Karim Benzema scored both goals for the team. He scored the first in the 29th minute of the first half and converted a penalty kick in the 77th minute second half. He now has scored 21 goals this season.
Despite the victory, there will be no title celebrations, including the traditional bus parade to the Cibeles fountain. The club and fans will be required to stay at home over concerns about further outbreaks of the coronavirus.
Real Madrid will look to win another trophy this summer in the Champions League. They are facing Manchester City in the second leg of the round-of-16. They will look to overcome the deficit from the first leg when they lost to the English team 2-1 on February 26.
El Clasico
Probably the most viewed and intense match of soccer, El Clasico is the match between two teams that have been rivals for decades — Real Madrid and Barcelona. The 2019-2020 season was a competition between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the top of the table, with little to separate the two superteams.
Real Madrid had to compete without their forward Eden Hazard, who suffered from persistent ankle injuries that required surgery. The last time they met on March 1, 2020, Real Madrid took the crucial victory, beating their rivals from the east 2-0.
Some soccer fans were doubtful of Real Madrid after Cristiano Ronaldo left the team. Nevertheless, they looked as dominant as ever and managed to beat the team who were clear favorites to win the league title for the next few years.
Coach Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane, coach of Real Madrid, was previously in charge from 2016 to 2018 and was reappointed as head coach in March 2019. For his first three seasons of coaching, he led his team to 10 trophies, including one league title and three Champions Leagues. After being reappointed, he brought two trophies this year, a La Liga title and the Spanish Super cup in January.
Before the game against Villareal that would eventually clinch their league title, Zidane did not get distracted by potential celebrations, and instead stayed focused on the game at hand.
“I don’t have to think about if we draw tomorrow, or on Sunday… Tomorrow, we will be going all out to win the game, as we do in every game,” he said in a press conference before the Villareal game.
The reason why he left the team in 2018 was that he did not manage to win the league title and lost in the Copa del Rey that year, despite winning the Champions League title. Zidane has always maintained his statement that winning that league is the hardest of all trophies to win. His second La Liga title as a coach is very meaningful, and the victory will feel sweeter given what they have had to go through for past three months due to the coronavirus.
