Real Madrid, crowned with the Spanish League title for the thirty-fifth time in its history, is preparing to face Liverpool in the Champions League final, with a 0-0 draw at home with Real Betis, the cup champion, on Friday, in the last 38th stage.
The match was marginal for Real, who won the league title in the thirty-fourth stage after his landslide victory over Espanyol 4-0, which made his remaining matches without real incentive, losing one against his neighbor Atletico 0-1 and drawing in two in the last two stages, while beating Levante 6-zero.
In his final appearance among his fans before traveling to Paris to face Liverpool on May 28, the Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team was Yemeni to prepare in the best way for the continental merit by defeating its strong guest Betis, who in turn lost hope of qualifying for the mother continental competition.
Ancelotti decided to risk Friday, despite the marginality of the match, by involving all his stars, led by French Karim Benzema, who failed to increase his score as the top scorer in the league, remaining at 27 goals, but without a threat to the top scorer title, as he leads by nine goals over Celta striker Iago Aspas.
Real played a beautiful match in terms of performance and chances, but Benzema and his Brazilian colleagues, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, missed the final touch, so the equalizer remained the master of the situation until the final whistle, which almost witnessed a goal for the visitors through veteran Joaquin on a counterattack, but the forty-year-old’s shot hit the Belgian model Thibaut Courtois a little bit.
Benzema almost did it in the last seconds of stoppage time with a header after a pass from the Brazilian substitute Marcelo, who probably played his last match with the Royal Club, but the ball passed very close to the right post.
Similar to Real Madrid, the Catalan rivals Barcelona will play a marginal match on Sunday at home against Villarreal, since coach Xavi Hernandez’s team has settled the runner-up with a 5-point lead over Atletico, the defending champion, who in turn is a guest on the same day at Real Sociedad, with the risk of losing third place to Sevilla. (a point separates them) without affecting his participation in the Champions League next season.
The two qualifying spots for the Euroleague competition were also decided in favor of Real Betis and Sociedad.
Betis won the Spanish Cup at the expense of Valencia, to decide the “Europe League” card as the champion of the competition, which allowed Sociedad to inherit the league card to the second continental championship in terms of importance.
The competition remains on the “Conference League” ticket between Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao, as the first leads the Basque team by only a point before their very difficult confrontations in Barcelona and Seville, respectively.
After the relegation of Levante and Alaves to the second division has been resolved, the struggle will be five to avoid catching them between Getafe (39 points), Elche (39), Granada (37), Real Mallorca (36) and Cadiz (36).
And there will be a direct final confrontation between the threats that gather on Sunday, Elche and Getafe, while Granada plays with Espanyol, Real Mallorca with its host Osasuna, and Cadiz with the relegated Alaves.