Real Madrid Win Primera Liga Title
Victory over Mallorca Sees off Challenge from Barcelona and Sevilla
In David Beckham's last game for Real Madrid, victory over Real Mallorca secured the Primera Liga title for the thirtieth time. Barcelona were second and Sevilla third.
Real Madrid won the Primera Liga title with their victory over Real Mallorca at the Bernabeu Stadium, seeing off the challenge of long time leaders, Barcelona who had a comfortable victory over Gimnastic who were already relegated.
Going into the match Real Madrid knew that victory would secure the League title for a record thirtieth time and no matter what Barcelona achieved, it would not be enough because Real had the better results in the two head to head encounters between the clubs who were level on points. Although Barcleona had a better goal difference and had scored more goals than Real, when teams are level on points in Spain they compare the two meetings between the clubs which came out in favour of Real.
In an expectant atmosphere in the Bernabeu Stadium, Real had an early shock when Mallorca hit the post in the first minute and then took the lead after just over a quarter of an hour. David Beckham who had recovered from the injury sustained while playing for England against Estonia was fit to start his final game for Real before moving to America to play for LA Galaxy. Following their set-back Real put the visitors under pressure with Beckham creating opportunities both from free-kicks and open play.
Real lost leading scorer Ruud van Nistlerooy with an injury after half an hour and as time wore on anxiety crept into their game as they failed to equalise. This was increased with the news that Barcelona were on their way to a comfortable victory over Gimnastic.
Into the second half and Beckham left the field with his ankle injury to be replaced by Jose Antonio Reyes who is on loan from Arsenal. Two minutes after coming on Reyes levelled the scores. With nine minutes remaining Real took the lead when the Mallorca goalkeeper fumbled the ball over the line from a corner and then two minutes later Reyes ensured victory with a shot from twenty five yards.
The La Liga title was now secure and Real Madrid had won it for the first time since 2003 and David Beckham left Madrid with his first trophy during his four years at the club.
Barcelona won their game against Gimnastic by 5-1 and until the eighty first minute when Real finally went ahead, Barcelona had one hand on the trophy.
At the start of the final day of the season, Sevilla in third place had an outside chance of claiming the title but their challenge floundered with the two clubs above them winning their games and with their single goal defeat at home to Villarreal.
As Champions, Real will compete in next season's Champions League.
