MADRID, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish La Liga season ended this weekend with FC Barcelona crowned league champions, Atletico Madrid second, Real Madrid finishing third and Valencia fourth.
Villarreal, Betis and Sevilla will play in next season's Europa League (Sevilla have to get through three qualifying rounds first), while Deportivo la Coruna, Las Palmas and Malaga pay the price for poor planning with relegation to the second division. Here are some of the takeaways from this season.
1.Barcelona deserve their title
It's hard to argue with success and on the domestic front at least. Barcelona have been top dogs, winning the league by a massive 14 points over second placed Atletico Madrid. They also lifted the Copa del Rey for the fourth consecutive year following a 5-0 hammering of Sevilla to claim their second double in three years.
None of that looked likely in the summer when Valverde replaced Luis Enrique with the club in turmoil and Neymar joining Paris Saint Germain. On paper the squad was weaker than last season, but they have won the double and that is due to Valverde. Although their Champions League exit to Roma hurt, that should show the club things needed to be handled better this summer.
2. Domestic failure for Real Madrid
Real Madrid will call their season a success if they beat Liverpool in the Champions League final next weekend, but European success should not hide the fact that on the domestic front, their campaign has been a disaster. They ended the season 17 points behind Barcelona and were effectively out of the title race before Christmas when Barcelona beat them 3-0 in the Bernabeu. That was followed by a Copa de Rey exit to Leganes before the end of January, leaving the rest of the campaign to focus on Europe.
Madrid has a better squad than Barcelona, with more options all over the pitch, but in La Liga they have underperformed badly.
3. Avoiding relegation too cheap
Malaga ended the season with just 20 points, Las Palmas with 21 and Deportivo la Coruna with 29, meaning fourth from bottom Leganes were 14 points clear of danger.
The three relegated sides go down after disastrous seasons that began back in the summer with poor planning and no coherent strategy. That meant that smaller clubs (Leganes, Gefate, Girona), who were organized and planned well never suffered and punched well above their weight.
4. Something was missing
The fact that Barcelona won the league with four weeks remaining, and that the top-four was decided with three weeks left to play and the relegation question was resolved long before the end of the campaign, meant the last two weeks of the campaign were very flat. Ultimately football fans want drama going into the closing weeks and this year didn't deliver. The three big clubs in Spain still dominate and La Liga realizes any drama needs a strong supporting cast. As things stand heading to the 2018-19 season, it doesn't look like we'll see that change anytime soon.
