With the domestic campaigns coming to an end over the last week in Europe, this week we have a special edition of the blog wrapping up the top 5 European competitions and the biggest stories in each league. There were plenty of stories to be had from Lille OSC winning Ligue 1 to Harry Kane winning the goals AND assists titles in the English Premier League, it was anything but a boring final week!
Premier League
The Premier League campaign came to an end last Sunday, with West Brom, Fulham, Sheffield United all relegated and with the league race wrapped up a few weeks ago by Manchester City. All the drama was to be found in the race for the guaranteed European Competition places. Liverpool FC and Chelsea qualified for the UCL with Leicester and West Ham taking the Europa League places.
The final day also had a couple great individual stories as well, Kane became only the 3rd player in history to lead the league in both goals and assists, silencing the doubters and raising suspicion he will be out of Tottenham by the time next season begins. Sergio Aguero will be leaving City during the summer and marked his final appearance with a brace, for the final time putting a smile on faces in the blue side of Manchester.
Bundesliga
Bayern Munich has once again won the Bundesliga, and frankly it was not even close. Just look at the gaps in points and goal difference, they have almost double the goal difference of anyone else in the league. Also, a big story in the league are the two relegated teams, Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen, both clubs would consider the season a total catastrophe for clubs of their size. The story of the last weekend was Robert Lewandowski scoring his 41st goal of the year, breaking Gerd Müller’s 30 year old scoring record in the Bundesliga. Even that, however, could not overcome Erling Haaland’s hold on the football world, He won the fan voted Player of the Year award for the league over Lewandowski despite his record shattering season.
Ligue 1
Lille OSC are the champions of France! The underdog side beat out French giants PSG, Monaco, Lyon, and Marseille to win their first Ligue 1 championship since 2010-2011. Even without their captain Jose Fonte, Lille were able to ride the excellent performances of Burak Yilmaz, Jonathan David, and Renato Sanches to a win over Angers that clinched the title by a single point over PSG. With Nimes and Dijon already relegated it was only the relegation playoff spot that was to be decided with Nantes finishing one point behind Brest to be put into the playoff against Toulouse FC.
La Liga
It took until the final day for Atletico Madrid to secure the club’s second title since being promoted back to La Liga in 2003. The biggest stories on the final day being Diego Simeone’s impressive run of nine straight seasons inside La Liga’s top three, and most of all the dramatic redemption of Luis Suarez since leaving Barcelona. Outside of the champions, there is immense intrigue surrounding the league especially with so many players rumoured to be coming and going; Aguero to Barcelona, will Messi stay, Mbappe to Madrid, will Real and Barcelona continue pursuing the European Super League? It is all happing in Spain right now, we will keep you updated as the summer progresses.
Serie A
With extraordinarily little drama Juventus’s nine year run of Serie A titles has come to a crashing halt. Inter Milan are Champions of Italy once again.
It was Inter’s first title in eleven seasons and was only their third time in the top three spots after having won the league five straight seasons from 2005-2010. Relegated from the league were Benevento, Crotone, and Parma, all of which were relegated before the last day of the season. Really the only drama on the final day was seeing if Juventus could fend off Napoli to keep their UEFA Champions League place, they did, but only scrapping by them by a point. Let’s hope next season the Serie A will keep us guessing as much as this one did, it has been anything but dull.
