LaLiga clubs battle for Euro places, relegation

With the 2021/22 LaLiga season entering the final four games, clubs are battling for places in the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Real Madrid are already winners after their 4-0 victory over Espanyol on Saturday ensured they are unassailable.

Apart from European places up for grabs, clubs in the lower end of the league table are also neck deep in relegation battles.

After enduring a poor start which saw them sack Ronald Koeman and bringing back club legend Xavi Hernandez last November, Barca are in a pole position for second place with 66 points, two ahead of Sevilla in third, while Atletico Madrid are fourth with 61 points.

Further behind and with an outside chance of making it to the Champions League are Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Villarreal and Athletic Club who have 58, 56, 52 and 52 points in fifth and eighth places respectively.

Six of the top seven sides face each other in an explosive matchday 35, which sees Madrid go to their city rivals Atletico, while Barca travel to Real Betis. The weekend also sees Villarreal welcome Sevilla.

At the bottom of the log, no side is mathematically down. Levante UD, Deportivo Alaves and Granada CF currently occupy the bottom spots, but all three have hopes of leapfrogging RCD Mallorca, Cadiz CF, and Getafe CF, three sides who still aren’t safe from the threat of relegation.

While Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema has all but wrapped up the Pichichi trophy for the top scorer in LaLiga Santander with perhaps the best season of any striker in European football, the Zamora and Zarra awards for the top goalkeeper and top scoring Spanish player in the division are still anything but a foregone conclusion.

Sevilla FC goalkeeper Bono is currently the favourite to win his first Zamora trophy with an average of just 0.79 goals conceded per game, but close behind are Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Geronimo Rulli (Villarreal CF) and Alex Remiro (Real Sociedad) and ahead of the likes of Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Jan Oblak, showcasing the depth of world-class talent between the sticks in LaLiga Santander. 

For the last four games of the season, LaLiga has launched a campaign with the slogan “If it’s happened before, it can happen again,” to remind fans what they’re in for between now and the final day.

The campaign features two 30-second and 60-second spots which will be promoted on LaLiga’s digital channels between now and the end of the season.