Cliff Notes – European football review Premier League prep fireworks finale
- Borussia Dortmund secured a UEFA Champions League spot after a remarkable turnaround, finishing the season with six wins in seven matches, despite being 11th just two months prior.
- Nottingham Forest’s victory over West Ham keeps them in contention for a top-five finish, with their captain Morgan Gibbs-White emphasising the importance of seizing the opportunity after a recent slump.
- LaLiga’s simultaneous kickoffs resulted in a thrilling final day, with 28 goals scored across ten matches, as teams battled for European qualification and survival, culminating in a dramatic conclusion to the season.
European soccer review: Premier League prep fireworks finale
In Germany, it’s all over. A dramatic final day culminating with Borussia Dortmund sealing a UEFA Champions League place after a disastrous campaign that saw them lying 11th in the table just two months ago.
In England and Spain, though, there’s still another week to go. And the penultimate round of games have set up can’t-miss season finales as the Premier League and LaLiga races for the final spots in next year’s Champions League go down to the wire.
All that and more in this edition of Weekend Review as Sam Tighe, Alex Kirkland and Constantin Eckner look across Europe for the big takeaways and highlights from the weekend.
Top takeaway: Forest bounce back to set up tense final day
Watching Nottingham Forest slip from third to seventh in the table in the space of a month has been tough. After last weekend’s drab draw with relegated Leicester City, captain Morgan Gibbs-White faced the cameras and warned that his team were at risk of wasting “the best situation possible.”
Perhaps it was fitting, then, that it was he who scored the opener in a bounce-back victory over West Ham United that keeps the Tricky Trees right in contention for a top-five spot — and with it a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Pleasingly for manager Nuno Espírito Santo, it felt like a trademark 2024-25 win. No team has scored the first goal in a game more times than Forest (25), and they’ve typically been able to manage the game and protect leads expertly. In the past month they’ve drifted from that template, but snapped back to it here, weathering extreme pressure in the game’s closing moments to secure three points.
Manchester City’s game in hand against AFC Bournemouth (to be played on Tuesday) makes permutations for the final day murky, but there is at least one clear path back to fifth: Beat strikerless Chelsea at home and hope Aston Villa drop points at Manchester United. Last week, even the first part of that plan looked beyond Forest, but one of this weekend’s most bizarre moments — defender Murillo being carted off the pitch at halftime, only to reappear for the second half as the intended substitute, Morato, looked on puzzled — wonderfully illustrates the Garibaldis’ never-say-die attitude.
It’s all to play for on Sunday — for five clubs!
Best match: Brentford 2-3 Fulham
A west London derby, played out in the sun, with potential ramifications for eighth place in the league (and therefore European qualification) played out just as chaotically as you’d assume. The score shifted from 0-1, to 2-1, to 2-3, with Player of the Season nominee Bryan Mbeumo missing a penalty along the way.
Best goal: Jarrod Bowen vs. Forest
Bowen’s consolation goal at the London Stadium was a stunner. He kept alive a hopeful cross to the back post with an instinctive flick of his heel, which effectively laid it up in the air for him to volley home in emphatic fashion with the next touch.
MVP of the weekend: Marc Cucurella, Chelsea
Chelsea’s Champions League destiny remains in their own hands thanks to Cucurella, who scored a brilliant late winner against Manchester United on Friday night. His thumping header beat André Onana all ends up, and he was crucial at the other end too, completing three tackles and registering three interceptions up against the lively Amad Diallo. — Tighe
Top takeaway: Simultaneous kickoffs ensure drama, goals galore
Sunday in LaLiga saw ten games being played at once, a rarity in a league that rarely sees two matches played at the same time. That meant the best way to enjoy the action was by sitting at home watching Spanish television’s “multi-goal” option: all the goals, from all the games, as they went in. And there were lots of them; 28, in fact. And despite the fact that Barcelona were confirmed as champions in midweek, and two of the teams to be relegated — Real Valladolid and Las Palmas — had their fates decided already, there was still plenty at stake.
Atlético Madrid, who’ve had a disappointing end to the campaign, beat Real Betis 4-1 to secure a third-placed finish, the minimum requirement for Diego Simeone’s team. Below them, Athletic Club won 1-0 at Valencia to finish fourth, and Villarreal won 3-2 at Barcelona to secure Spain’s fifth Champions League spot. They’ve often gone under the radar, but Marcelino’s team might surprise a few people in Europe next season. Further down the table, Celta Vigo weren’t able to book a UEFA Europa League spot, beaten 2-1 at home by Rayo Vallecano. Celta will have to wait until next week for that; and Rayo are in with a good chance of making Europe too — either the Europa or UEFA Conference League — which is a remarkable achievement given their limited resources.
In San Sebastián, there was a farewell for Imanol Alguacil, in his last home game in charge of Real Sociedad, their most successful coach for 40 years. They served up an entertaining, if meaningless, 3-2 win over Girona. And at the bottom, two teams — Getafe and Alavés — took three points to secure safety for another season. Leganés won 1-0 at Las Palmas to keep fighting until the final day, where either they, or Espanyol, will go down.
So that was that: a breathless night, packed with great goals and moments, and almost everything decided in LaLiga, with one more weekend to go.
Alex Pareja talks about Barcelona’s title-winning LaLiga campaign under Hansi Flick despite ending their unbeaten run in defeat to Villarreal.
Best match: Barcelona 2-3 Villarreal
Barcelona’s players had spent the past few days celebrating after wrapping up the league title on Thursday, while Villarreal’s were focused on a significant prize: Champions League qualification. The result was an enjoyable game, with moments of gasp-inducing quality — like Lamine Yamal’s textbook, left-footed goal — before Tajon Buchanan’s 80th-minute winner.
Best goal: Raul García vs. Espanyol
There were so many contenders here. So apologies to Yamal, Julián Álvarez, Athletic’s Álex Berenguer, Getafe’s Christantus Uche, and even Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé. The goal of the weekend goes to Raul García for his unexpected, Maradona-esque effort for Osasuna, tying the defender in knots before stroking a finish past the goalkeeper.
MVP of the weekend: Julián Alvarez, Atlético Madrid
Alvarez has been outstanding for Atlético in his debut season, and in their last home game of the campaign, he might have produced his best all-round performance. It started with one of the best of his 28 goals this season, a free kick fired into the top corner, while a second goal, late on, made sure of the win. If there’s one reason to be excited about Atlético in the Club World Cup, it’s Alvarez. — Kirkland
Top takeaway: Dortmund seal UCL place on final-day thriller
Only two months ago, Borussia Dortmund were 11th in the Bundesliga standings, miles away from qualifying for the Champions League. Just as they did in the past two seasons, though, the Schwarzgelben made a push into May, winning six of seven games, only dropping points when they drew with champions Bayern Munich.
On the final matchday, things looked promising for Niko Kovač’s side, even though they were still behind SC Freiburg and Eintracht Frankfurt in the fight for the remaining two Champions League spots. Freiburg and Frankfurt met at Europa-Park Stadion, hence at least one team had to lose points, while Dortmund faced Holstein Kiel in what was Kiel’s final game in the Bundesliga before returning to the second division.
The guests from the north made it easy for Dortmund in front of a raucous crowd inside Signal Iduna Park, conceding an early penalty converted by Serhou Guirassy and then going down to ten men after only nine minutes. Carl Johansson fouled Karim Adeyemi, who had stolen the ball high up the pitch and was about to shoot from a promising position, and was promptly shown the red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity.
Dortmund took it from there, winning 3-0 while Frankfurt beat Freiburg 3-1. This means Borussia qualify for the Champions League for the tenth consecutive year. This recent uptick in performance will also save Kovač his job, considering the 53-year-old essentially had a tryout for the managerial position during the second half of the season after replacing Nuri Şahin.
Best match: RB Leipzig 2-3 VfB Stuttgart
While Dortmund have made it to Europe once again, Leipzig will miss international competition for the first time since arriving in the Bundesliga in 2016. The Xavi Simons-led side once again weren’t firing on all cylinders and allowed Stuttgart, who will play the German Cup final on Saturday, too many chances. It’s time for a reset at Red Bull Arena.
Best goal: Michael Olise vs. TSG Hoffenheim
His 17th goal of the season was art, as he curled the ball over the wall beautifully and hit the back of the net despite goalkeeper Oliver Baumann’s best efforts to get a finger or two to the attempt.
MVP of the weekend: Michael Olise, Bayern Munich
Thomas Müller was likely playing the final Bundesliga game of his career against Hoffenheim at PreZero Arena, but someone else stole the show. Even though virtually everyone in Germany is talking about Bayern potentially signing Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen and uniting him with Jamal Musiala, no one should overlook the fact that Olise had an outstanding first season for the German champions. Against Hoffenheim, he put Bayern on the board with a beautiful free kick and assisted Joshua Kimmich to score the 2-0 marker. Bayern eventually won 4-0, with Müller being subbed off after an hour. — Eckner
What else you missed this weekend
Giants return to the Bundesliga
Last week, Hamburg secured their promotion to the Bundesliga after a grueling absence from the league they had called home for 55 years before their 2018 relegation. On the final matchday of the 2. Bundesliga season, Cologne were best positioned to accompany Hamburg to Germany’s top flight.
The week leading up to the game was nothing short of chaos, though, as striker Tim Lemperle was involved in an altercation that left him with a broken nose. Friedhelm Funkel, the 71-year-old caretaker manager who had replaced former New York Red Bulls coach Gerhard Struber only two weeks earlier, had no choice but to leave Lemperle on the bench against Kaiserslautern, despite his ten goals this season.
In the end, though, it didn’t matter, with the hosts scoring twice in the first 30 minutes en route to a 4-0 victory. They’ll join Hamburg in the Bundesliga in 2025-26, and Germany’s top flight can celebrate welcoming back two giants of the game. — Eckner
A wholesome weekend of English football
English football went into emotional overdrive this weekend as three wholesome moments occurred within 24 hours of each other.
First, Crystal Palace won the first major trophy in their history, beating Manchester City 1-0 in the FA Cup final to send fans that span generations into tearful raptures. Wembley had likely never witnessed such heartfelt passion and joy.
Next, Everton said goodbye to Goodison Park with a 2-0 win over Southampton. The fans who got a ticket cherished every moment, decked out in blue, while those that didn’t gathered outside the stadium at full time to say their own farewells. Clearly some went to great lengths to see that hallowed ground one last time – about an hour after full time, a cluster of supporters were spotted on the roof.
Not long later, Leicester City fans serenaded Jamie Vardy on his 500th and final appearance for the club. He responded in kind by netting his 200th goal, a classic transition run and finish. Pre-match decoration anointed him the GOAT; after leading them into the Premier League, then to a miraculous title and an FA Cup win, who could argue with that sentiment? — Tighe
