Villarreal dampens Barcelona's title celebrations. Mbappé scores again for Madrid
MADRID (AP) — Villarreal dampened Barcelona's title celebrations by handing the Catalan club its first defeat of 2025 in the Spanish league on Sunday. Villarreal won 3-2.
Barcelona clinched its 28th league title after winning 2-0 at Espanyol on Thursday, and the club presented the trophy to its fans in the team's final home match of the season at Montjuic stadium.
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.
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.
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.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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