MADRID: Villarreal dampened Barcelona’s title celebrations by handing the Catalan club its first defeat of 2025 in the Spanish league on Sunday.
Barcelona, which clinched its 28th league title midweek, presented the trophy to its fans in the team’s final home match of the season at Montjuic stadium. Players were announced one by one after the game, which Villarreal won 3-2, before lifting the trophy.
Barcelona’s Spanish Super Cup and Copa del Rey trophies also were displayed at Montjuic, with players dancing around the silverware during the celebrations.
“We can be proud of this team for winning these titles and for how it did it,” Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen said. “We had a great season in all levels.”
Before the match, Villarreal players did a guard of honor for the new league champions, with its players lining up to congratulate Barcelona as the team entered the field.
Real Madrid won 2-0 at nine-man Sevilla, with Kylian Mbappé extending his league-leading tally to 29 goals with one round to go. Jude Bellingham also scored. Madrid reached 81 points, four fewer than Barcelona.
Villarreal’s victory secured its return to the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2022.
It will join Barcelona, Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao in Europe’s top club competition next season. Spain will have five clubs in the Champions League next season.
Real Betis clinched one of the Europa League spots. Celta Vigo, Rayo Vallecano and Osasuna will be chasing the final Europa League place and the Conference League spot.
Leganes, owned by former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, and Espanyol will try to avoid the last relegation spot in the final round when Leganes is at last-placed Valladolid and Espanyol faces relegated Las Palmas.
Barcelona, Madrid, Atletico and Athletic will play in next year’s lucrative Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
All 10 games were played at the same time on Sunday.
Barcelona’s loss
Barcelona hadn’t lost in the league since a 2-1 defeat against Atletico on Dec. 21, with 15 wins and two draws since then. Villarreal’s win was its fifth straight victory in the league.
Ayoze Pérez put the visitors ahead after a breakaway four minutes into the match. The hosts equalized when Lamine Yamal scored with yet another beautiful goal in the teenager’s outstanding season, curling in a left-footed shot from outside the area.
Fermín López put Barcelona ahead in first-half stoppage time, but Santiago Comesaña scored for Villarreal in the 50th and Tajon Buchanan netted the winner in the 80th.
It was likely the last match Barcelona played at Montjuic stadium as the club plans to return to the Camp Nou Stadium next season even though renovation work at the venue is not expected to be fully completed until mid-2026.
Mbappé’s goals
Mbappé strengthened his chances of finishing as the league’s top scorer this season with a goal from a low shot from outside the area in the 75th.
Mbappé now has 29 league goals. Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski (25 goals) is his nearest rival.
Sevilla’s Loic Bade was sent off in the 12th for a foul on Mbappé to stop a breakaway. Then Isaac Romero was shown a red card for a hard foul on Aurélien Tchouaméni.
It was the second-to-last match for Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti before he becomes Brazil coach. Xabi Alonso is widely expected to be Madrid’s next coach.
Sevilla, sitting in 16th place, had only one win in its last 10 games.
Relegation fight
Leganes kept its survival hopes alive by winning 1-0 at Las Palmas with a sixth-minute goal by Dani Raba.
It is two points behind the first team outside the relegation zone, Espanyol, which remained in danger after a 2-0 loss at Osasuna for its fifth straight defeat.
Alaves escaped the drop by winning 1-0 at Valladolid, while Getafe did the same by beating Mallorca 2-1 to end a six-game losing run.
Second-to-last Las Palmas and bottom side Valladolid had already been relegated.
European places
Celta Vigo lost 2-1 at home to Rayo Vallecano but holds the final Europa League spot in seventh place. It is one point ahead of both eighth-placed Rayo — in the Conference League position — and ninth-placed Osasuna.
Rayo will host Mallorca in the final round, while Osasuna visits Alaves and Celta is at Getafe.
Spanish Super Cup
The top two teams in the league and the Copa del Rey finalists are awarded places in the Spanish Super Cup. Since this season’s final was between Barcelona and Madrid, two other spots were made available through the league.
Third-placed Atletico guaranteed its spot with a 4-1 win over Betis with Julián Álvarez scoring twice, including with a superb curling free kick in the first half. Fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao won 1-0 at Valencia with a goal by Álex Berenguer.
Alguacil honored
Real Sociedad honored coach Imanol Alguacil in its final home match, a 3-2 win against Girona.
Alguacil will step down this summer after a mostly successful six-and-a-half-year stint in charge of the Basque Country club.
Villarreal dampens Barcelona’s title celebrations. Mbappé scores again for Madrid
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Villarreal dampens Barcelona’s title celebrations. Mbappé scores again for Madrid
- Villarreal’s victory secured its return to the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2022
Saudi Arabia opening doors for women athletes, says expert
- Lina Al-Maeena, chairperson of Jeddah United Club, lauds progress
- Focus on female development at World Football Summit in Riyadh
RIYADH: The World Football Summit which ended here on Thursday has once again placed women’s football at the center of its global agenda, highlighting initiatives, insights, and the achievements of trailblazers shaping the sport’s future.
One of the summit’s standout moments was the Female Leaders Awards that celebrated individuals and organizations driving progress, innovation, and equity in the women’s game.
Another anchor of the summit was the Female Leaders Gathering, which in its third year has become a vital platform for discussing leadership pathways and gender equity.
The gathering was led by Farkhunda Muhtaj, captain of the Afghanistan women’s national team, who said she hoped the initiative “continues empowering women to lead and influence the game at every level.”
Among the year’s award winners was Lina Al-Maeena, chairperson of Jeddah United Club, who expressed pride in the rapid transformation taking place within the Kingdom.
“We have come a long way in a very short time,” she said. “Our under-17 girls’ football team is now competing across the country under the Saudi Football Federation, and it shows how fast the sport is evolving.”
She added that “women are now participating in international events, something that felt impossible only a few years ago.”
Al-Maeena emphasized that equal opportunity was a cornerstone of Saudi Vision 2030. “The Ministry of Sports has opened doors for girls and boys across more than 100 federations and committees,” she said.
She highlighted the power of grassroots involvement. “It starts with the community,” she said. “That’s where you find the everyday champions who then rise to clubs and national teams.”
Across multiple sessions at the WFS, experts emphasized that women’s football was entering a new phase marked by global expansion and the rise of nontraditional markets.
The country had launched a professional women’s league, hosted international tournaments, expanded youth programs, and introduced the region’s first Women’s Champions League.
Eileen Gleeson, who has worked extensively in international women’s football, said that emerging markets like Saudi Arabia were “changing the map of where the women’s game can grow.”
She explained that the needs of these regions differed from those of established football nations. “The ambition is there,” she said, “but it’s not always matched with resources. You might want to win, but you can’t invest equally in every area. So the question becomes: where do you put that money?”
For Gleeson, long-term sustainability had to be the guiding principle. “Your starting point is different,” she said. “You’re introducing women’s football while also trying to professionalize it. For long-term growth, investment must go into the developing areas.”
She cited Saudi Arabia’s progress, noting that “in just four years, they’ve moved into professional structures with real commitment.” Still, she cautioned that nurturing homegrown players had to remain a priority.
“You have to protect your domestic league,” she said. “You can’t let it become an international league for its own sake.”
Muhtaj echoed this point, offering her perspective as a player who grew up without a domestic league in Canada. “Many Canadian players had to go abroad,” she said.
“But when you go abroad, you’re not always given the best opportunities because domestic players take precedence.”
She argued that investment should focus on markets with high talent but limited infrastructure. “There is so much talent in Asia and Africa,” she said. “The only thing missing is opportunity.”
She also emphasized how investment could stretch further in developing regions.
She said $400 million in Canada’s National Women’s Soccer League “might get you two or three franchises. But that same amount in developing regions could build an entire league with strong infrastructure.”
Muhtaj pointed to Saudi Arabia as “an example of how quickly opportunity can transform the environment for women players.”
