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The Euro Preview: Real Madrid and Juventus make it official

By Michael Harshbarger

MADRID, SPAIN - MAY 21: Real Madrid´s Cristiano Ronaldo arrive at the city hall of Madrid to offer the league cup to Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena and Real Madrid fans after winning the 2016/17 Spanish football league, in Madrid, Spain on May 21, 2017.
MADRID, SPAIN - MAY 21: Real Madrid´s Cristiano Ronaldo arrive at the city hall of Madrid to offer the league cup to Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena and Real Madrid fans after winning the 2016/17 Spanish football league, in Madrid, Spain on May 21, 2017. /
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Real Madrid and Juventus are champions. Borussia Dortmund are bound for the Champions League group stage. Welcome to the season wrap up edition of the Euro Preview.

La Liga

Real Madrid fans had to wait four whole seasons, but their club are once again La Liga champions. They only needed a point against Malaga on Sunday to secure the title, but went ahead and won the match 2-0. As if it could have happened any other way, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with what would be the title-winning goal.

Although it would never be enough, Barcelona finished on a high note, defeating Eibar 4-2 in their final La Liga match of the season. Lionel Messi scored a brace and Luis Suarez added one of his own. Both Real and Barca won their final six matches.

The race for the La Liga golden boot wasn’t much of a race. Lionel Messi scored 37 league goals. Reminder: each La Liga team plays 38 league matches. Messi played in 34 of Barca’s games. I’m not great at math but I’m fairly confident that’s an average of slightly more than one goal per game played. I think that’s good. He added nine assists.

His teammate Luis Suarez scored 29 goals, good for second place, adding a whopping 13 assists. Ronaldo finished in third, scoring 25 and assisting on six. That guy really needs to up his game in my opinion.

Atletico Madrid (third place) and Sevilla (fourth place) rounded out the La Liga Champions League spots while Villarreal and Real Sociedad are headed to the Europa League next season. The latter held off seventh-place Athletic Bilbao by a single point.

Bundesliga

Bayern Munich have been champions for weeks. RB Leipzig finished their fairy tale season in second. The only thing up for grabs at the top of the Bundesliga table was the final automatic bid to the Champions League group stage, which is awarded to the third place team.

Borussia Dortmund and Hoffenheim came into the final Bundesliga matchday level on points. Hoffenheim could only manage a draw against Augsburg, opening the door for Dortmund to claim third place with a giant 4-3 win at Signal Iduna Park over Werder Bremen.

Marco Reus and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang each notched a brace. Young American international Christian Pulisic came off the bench for the entire second half. Although his production slowed down in the second half of the season, he had a wonderful campaign for BVB. Pulisic finished with three goals and six assists in 29 Bundesliga matches. He added a goal and two assists in the Champions League and a goal in the DFB Pokal.

With his two goals on Saturday, Aubameyang leapfrogged Robert Lewandowski (30 league goals) to become the Bundesliga top goalscorer, finishing with 31.

There are still some things to be settled at the bottom of the Bundesliga table as the league employs a severely strange relegation/promotion scheme. Third from bottom Wolfsburg won the first leg of a playoff 1-0 against excellently named Eintracht Braunschweig, who finished third in Bundesliga 2. The winner of the playoff gets to play in the Bundesliga next season.

Serie A

Of the leagues we focus on here at the Euro Preview, Serie A is the only one with a week of games left to play. But Juventus secured their sixth straight(!) league title with a 3-0 win over Crotone this past Sunday.

Your future favorite player, Paulo Dybala, was on the scoresheet as the Old Lady reached the Serie A summit once again. Having already won the Coppa Italia, Juve have a chance for the ever-coveted treble against Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Cardiff on June 3.

Their loss leaves Crotone in 18th place, one point from safety in the relegation battle. Unfortunately for them, they finish Serie A play against fourth-place Lazio. 17th-place Empoli will be favored to avoid the drop as they travel to already-relegated Palermo on Sunday.

While Roma and Napoli don’t have to worry about qualifying for the Champions League, the two sides are still fighting for second place. Roma currently enjoy a one point advantage heading into their home match against 16th-place Genoa. Napoli will travel to 10th-place Sampdoria, who are winless in their last six. Both matches will take place on Sunday.

Roma striker Edin Dzeko will try to hold off his Napoli counterpart Dries Mertens for the Serie A golden boot. Dzeko currently has 28 goals while Mertens is one behind him with 27.

Next: This week in US Soccer: Baby Yanks go top in WC group

Bonus Goal: Goal of the Year

As usual with these things, this is completely subjective. I really like this insane overhead goal from Atletico’s Fernando Torres against Celta Vigo back in February. Long live El Nino.

https://twitter.com/ESbeINSPORTS/status/830869609150631937

Until next season.

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