Images from La Liga matches played on Monday.
Real Madrid continued their impressive start to the new year with Karim Benzema giving them a 1-0 victory in the King's Cup quarter-final first-leg tie away to Espanyol on Tuesday.
Villarreal landed a stunning blow on a potential rival for a European qualification berth when Giovani dos Santos and Ikechukwu Uche each struck twice in a 5-1 drubbing of Real Sociedad in La Liga on Monday.
The FIFA 2022 World Cup will kick-off in Qatar on Sunday, November 20. Here is a list of the 26-man squads playing in the quadrennial global football extravaganza.
'Will I be playing at Barca next season? It's an unknown'
Napoli went down 3-1 at home to RB Leipzig, Arsenal and AC Milan enjoyed comfortable away wins, and Borussia Dortmund's Michy Batshuayi scored twice to secure a 3-2 victory in Europa League last 32, first leg action
Spain's biggest selling sports daily Marca summed it up in Monday's headline after Barcelona wrapped up a fifth La Liga title in seven years and their 23rd overall on Sunday: 'Messi's League'.
Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri said the refusal of his goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga to be substituted in Sunday's League Cup final was the result of a "big misunderstanding", adding that the Spaniard "was right but in the wrong way".
Treble-chasing Barcelona are exactly where they want to be as they prepare for two matches this week that could make or break coach Luis Enrique's first season in charge.
Barcelona captain Lionel Messi scored two goals and set up two more as the Catalans thrashed Real Valladolid 5-1 to move top of La Liga on Tuesday.
Luis Suarez has progressed from his impressive debut La Liga campaign to produce the most prolific season of his career and fire Barcelona to a second straight title, free of the stigma of his ban for biting which accompanied him to Spain in 2014. It was fitting that the Uruguayan should score a hat-trick in the comfortable 3-0 victory at Granada on Saturday to clinch the title, taking his tally to 40 goals in 35 games. He is the first player other than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to finish as La Liga top scorer since 2009 but his contribution to Barca's title triumph goes beyond his goals and 16 assists. For Suarez is the hardest working of the feted 'MSN' partnership he forms with Messi and Neymar, a trio who have delivered 90 of Barcelona's 112 league goals. He is also the most willing to close down opponents and run into space and, naturally, he has shown himself to be the player who is keenest to throw himself into any physical battle.
Here are five talking points from the weekend's action in La Liga.
Images from football matches played in La Liga and Serie A in Spain and Italy on Wednesday.
AC Milan, Villarreal and Nice reached the knockout stage of the Europa League after posting wins on Thursday in the penultimate round of the group stage.
Casemiro headed an 89th minute winner to earn Real Madrid a barely deserved 2-1 victory at Las Palmas in La Liga on Sunday as they closed the gap on second-placed Atletico Madrid to four points.
Defender Gerard Pique grabbed a rare winner and Lionel Messi scored yet another beauty as Barcelona came from behind to beat Sevilla 2-1 at the Nou Camp on Sunday and reclaim an eight-point lead at the top of La Liga.
From comments about the healthy relationship shared between Barca trio -- Messi, Suarez and Neymar, to questions about his goal drought in away matches, an angry Ronaldo had the response to it all
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone may have played down the significance of Sunday's 2-1 La Liga defeat at Real Sociedad but it has raised further questions about the champions' ability to defend their title.
Whatever Karim Benzema does in a Real Madrid shirt his achievements are generally overshadowed by the exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo yet the France forward has a splendid Champions League record of his own.
Not content with setting a record of 17 goals for one edition of the Champions League last season, Cristiano Ronaldo is already well on the way towards breaking Lionel Messi's La Liga best haul of 50 goals in one campaign.
Champions Liverpool suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to lowly Burnley on Thursday, ending their 68 match unbeaten home record in the Premier League as their title defence continued to fade.
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique is still not satisfied despite winning five trophies in 2015 and is aiming to do even better next year.
Real Madrid put their title defence back on track with a comfortable 3-1 win over Real Sociedad at Anoeta on Sunday, despite missing several key players. Sociedad defender Kevin Rodrigues scored at both ends and Borja Mayoral and Gareth Bale netted Madrid's other goals to help them equal the consecutive scoring record of 73 games set by Pele's Santos between 1961 and 1963.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar were all on target as holders Barcelona beat Athletic Bilbao 3-1 on Wednesday to overturn a deficit from the first leg and advance to the quarter-finals of the King's Cup.
Following a bright start to the season it was another disappointing display by Villarreal, who have one win from seven games in La Liga, before the return at El Madrigal in two weeks.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, find themselves in the bizarre situation of having made poor starts to the campaign
The suggestion that Spain need to change their playing style is already meeting resistance even though another disappointing performance at a major soccer tournament suggests that tiki-taka has run its course. In many countries, a defeat as comprehensive as the one Spain suffered against Italy in Euro 2016 on Monday, when they were outplayed and lucky to lose only 2-0, would have led to calls to knock everything down and start again. In Spain, however, where many are proud of having such a distinctive style of play, there are plenty of voices calling for the team to continue trying to pass the ball all the way into the goal.
Real are unbeaten since February, winning 10 of their last 12 games. In contrast, Barcelona have won just two of their previous five in all competitions and were dumped out of Europe in midweek.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti fended off questions about his future after the Champions League holders were dumped out in the semi-finals by Juventus 3-2 on aggregate on Wednesday.
Here are five talking points from the weekend in La Liga.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
For all Vicente del Bosque's confidence that he has the right balance of experience and youth to return Spain to their familiar place on the winner's rostrum, questions remain about his best starting line-up ahead of Euro 2016.
Now, Real Madrid have never won the Spanish treble and are fighting tooth and nail in La Liga to prevent arch-rivals Barcelona scooping Champions League and domestic league and Cup titles for a second time.
Barca made a slow start to the campaign under their new coach but after beating Paris Saint Germain in the quarter-finals they are on course to repeat the treble success.
Barcelona extended their near-perfect start to the season when Alexis Sanchez tapped in at the far post from Neymar's clever assist to secure a 1-0 win at home to city rivals Espanyol in La Liga on Friday.
One of the most disappointing aspects of Barcelona's failure to win major silverware last season was the lack of on-field chemistry between Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Karim Benzema made history at Real Madrid, the battle for the top four continues to heat up
Playing without crowd will be peculiar: Suarez
Second half of abandoned Rayo-Albacete will kick-off proceedings on return.
La Liga leaders Barcelona drew 0-0 at Huesca on Saturday and are nine points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid, who cut the gap by beating Celta Vigo 2-0.
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