{"id":21004,"date":"2026-05-11T03:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/21004\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:52:20","slug":"marcus-rashford-seals-title-for-barcelona-to-complete-week-to-forget-for-real-madrid-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/21004\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Rashford seals title for Barcelona to complete week to forget for Real Madrid \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Liga: Barcelona 2 (Rashford 9, Torres 18) Real Madrid 0<\/p>\n

This time it was Marcus Rashford who delivered the knockout blow. Three days after the fight between Fede Valverde and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni that ended with Real Madrid\u2019s vice captain taken to hospital and the crisis at the club laid painfully bare for all to see, they went to the Camp Nou and finally relinquished the league title they lost long ago.<\/p>\n

For the first time in 94 years a meeting of sport\u2019s greatest rivals decided La Liga, 62,000 fans starting the party as goals from the Englishman and Ferran Torres took Hansi Flick\u2019s team over the line with three games to spare.<\/p>\n

For Madrid, at least it was over, nothing left to hold on to. They had avoided it happening last week by beating Espanyol, just across the city limits, sparing themselves from having to hand their rivals a guard of honour before the game but they knew they couldn\u2019t avoid it for ever. Now all they could aspire to was preventing them from beginning the title party in their presence, but like so much else this campaign that was beyond them, and so a second successive season closes without a trophy, and on the worst possible stage.<\/p>\n

Barcelona had taken the first step on the night early, the opening goal coming on just nine minutes and never looked back.<\/p>\n

If this is to be just a one-year loan, what a way to sign off: with a cl\u00e1sico goal to win the championship. And what a goal, too. From the right edge of the Madrid area, Rashford stood over the ball. Before him, four men in the wall, another lying on the turf behind it, and, behind them, the best goalkeeper in the world. None of them could stop him, a superb free-kick flying in a long arc outwards and into the far corner. The Englishman raced towards the bench, pursued by his team-mates. It was his 14th goal of this season in Spain; there have been 14 assists too.<\/p>\n

\"MarcusMarcus Rashford scores Barcelona’s opening goal. Photograph: David Ramos\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Speaking of assists, the one that Dani Olmo provided for Barcelona to double the lead 10 minutes later was gorgeous. Leaping to connect with the clipped ball into the Madrid box, he guided it, on the volley, through his legs to Torres. Alone near the penalty spot, Torres controlled and smashed it past Thibaut Courtois. The place went wild, smelling blood.<\/p>\n

While this looked like it might get ugly for Madrid \u2013 if no more ugly than their week had already been \u2013 they did react while Barcelona\u2019s front-footed approach meant there was a path to pursue too. So it was that Gonzalo Garc\u00eda should have pulled one back when a Ra\u00fal Asencio ball in behind Pau Cubars\u00ed set him clean through only for the shot to slip wide. A moment later, Jude Bellingham almost escaped to set up Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior.<\/p>\n

Pedri sought to provide a little more control and when they did, the ol\u00e9s followed. Which didn\u2019t mean Barcelona only played for playing\u2019s sake. In fact, they were better this way. A sharp turn saw Torres drop deep and release Rashford up the right, and when Rashford is released no one can catch him \u2013 including his team-mates. The fastest player in La Liga raced clear and while he could have laid it across to Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez, his team-mate still had not quite arrived into position. Rashford struck hard, low, and just beyond the far post. Courtois\u2019 touch had been decisive and from the corner, Olmo sliced wide.<\/p>\n

\"RealReal Madrid’s Jude Bellingham heads the ball. Photograph: Lluis Gene\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The second half brought an early confrontation when Olmo pushed over Asencio, and the players pilled in, Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni hanging back. Then a Trent Alexander-Arnold ball found Bellingham was laid out by a stray elbow from Eric Garc\u00eda. Next there were words between Gavi and Bellingham. Perhaps surprisingly, this was still a game.<\/p>\n

Torres might have made it 3-0, only for Courtois to stretch out a foot to deny him. When Bellingham controlled D\u00edaz\u2019s pass and scored just after the hour, the flag was up. One of five men offside, Bellingham knew as much, left tearing at his shirt in frustration. Almost immediately, Cubars\u00ed made a mess of a simple long ball from Asencio to allow Vin\u00edcius in. The Brazilian, though, was unable to lift over Joan Garc\u00eda. Gerard Mart\u00edn, so often the man tidying up, then had to chase down D\u00edaz.<\/p>\n

Time slipped away, and as Barcelona\u2019s control returned so too did the ol\u00e9s, the expression of an incontestable superiority that lasted almost all season long. Soon they were followed by a chorus of \u2018campeones, campeones\u2019. There was a round too of \u2018Madrid, you bastards, salute the champions\u2019. Twice Barcelona might have scored again but it did not matter, the roar huge at the whistle.<\/p>\n

Up in the directors\u2019 box sat the president of the league, Javier Tebas, and the president of the Spanish football federation, Rafael Louz\u00e1n, here on official duty. Alongside them, was the president of the international boxing federation, Mauricio Sulaim\u00e1n. Florentino P\u00e9rez, the president of Real Madrid, was not. When it was all over \u2013 the cl\u00e1sico and the title race \u2013 they came down, handed out the trophy and the celebrations began. By then, Madrid had departed. They had done some time ago. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Liga: Barcelona 2 (Rashford 9, Torres 18) Real Madrid 0 This time it was Marcus Rashford who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1315,301,82,4645,83],"class_list":["post-21004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-barcelona-fc","tag-la-liga","tag-madrid","tag-match-report","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}