Barcelona's Title Hopes Dashed by Alaves Defeat

Newly-crowned champions, but beaten all the same. Barcelona’s pursuit of La Liga’s fabled 100-point mark ended with a dull thud in Vitoria, where a desperate Alaves side wanted the night far more and earned it with a 1-0 win.

Hansi Flick’s team arrived needing three wins from three to match the all-time record. They never got past the first step.

Champions on cruise control, Alaves fighting for air

The contrast could not have been sharper. Barcelona, still basking in the glow of Sunday’s Clasico triumph and Monday’s open-top bus parade, dominated the ball but played as if the hardest work had already been done this season.

Alaves, locked in a relegation fight, played as if every duel carried a price. They scrapped, they chased, they fouled when they had to. They treated every clearance like a small victory.

Flick rotated heavily, as promised. Twenty-one-year-old centre-back Alvaro Cortes was handed his debut, one of several changes from the side that clinched back-to-back titles at the weekend. The line-up spoke of a coach already managing minutes and minds with the trophy secured, and it showed in the rhythm of Barcelona’s play.

Marcus Rashford brought energy on the flank, always available, always running, but the champions rarely turned possession into real menace. The ball moved. Alaves’ back line barely did. They held their shape, waited, and trusted that the champions’ edge had dulled.

The pressure finally told — but at the wrong end for Barcelona.

Diabate strikes as Barca switch off

Deep into first-half stoppage time, Barcelona’s concentration slipped. A corner was swung in, Antonio Blanco rose and nodded the ball back toward goal. The visiting defence froze. Ibrahim Diabate did not.

He reacted first, pounced, and drilled his finish past Wojciech Szczesny. One lapse, one goal, and suddenly the champions were trailing to a team that began the night staring at the drop.

Flick later pointed to the positives — the young players, the managed workloads — but that moment summed up the evening: Alaves sharper, hungrier, alive to every second ball, while Barcelona drifted towards the interval as if the whistle had already blown.

After the break, the pattern stayed the same on the surface. Barcelona had the ball, Alaves had the threat. Early in the second half, Diabate again found space and forced Szczesny into a sharp save, the goalkeeper pushing his effort away as the hosts hunted a second goal that would have sent the stadium into full eruption.

Barcelona, for all their territory, struggled to carve out anything clean. Half-chances, hopeful crosses, blocked shots. Little else. The champions circled the Alaves box without ever truly breaking it open.

At the other end, Jon Guridi almost finished them off, driving across Szczesny and beating the keeper, only to see his effort crash against the post. It was the kind of moment that usually punishes relegation candidates. On this night, it underlined how close Alaves came to a statement win becoming a rout.

The single goal stood, and with it came a huge shift at the bottom. Quique Sanchez Flores’s team climbed out of the relegation zone and up to 15th, a reward for a night of relentless graft. Barcelona, meanwhile, saw the 100-point dream vanish into the Basque night.

Sevilla roar back from the brink

Earlier in the evening, another team fighting their own demons turned the script on its head. Sevilla, dragged into an uncomfortable relegation conversation in recent months, produced a stirring comeback to beat high-flying Villarreal 3-2 away from home.

It started badly. Very badly. Gerard Moreno and Georges Mikautadze fired Villarreal, sitting third, into a two-goal lead inside 20 minutes. Sevilla looked on the ropes, another long, anxious night seemingly on the way.

Then the game flipped.

Oso struck to pull one back, Kike Salas added the equaliser before the break, and suddenly Sevilla were playing with a freedom that had been missing for months. The tension that has stalked them this season loosened, and by the 72nd minute Akor Adams completed the turnaround, smashing in the winner to seal a third consecutive victory.

The result lifted Sevilla up to 10th, four points clear of the drop zone, and came in a week when reports emerged that former defender Sergio Ramos is close to leading a takeover of the club alongside an investment firm. On the pitch, at least, the reaction was immediate: a team that looked lost not long ago now surging toward safety.

Tears in Barcelona, but in blue and white

In Barcelona’s own city, it was Espanyol who finally allowed themselves to breathe. After 18 league games without a win in 2026, they beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home, a result that felt less like three points and more like an exorcism.

Pere Milla broke the deadlock in the second half, and Kike Garcia’s late strike settled it. As the ball hit the net, coach Manolo Gonzalez could not hold back the emotion. He spoke of one of the worst experiences of his professional and personal life, a winless run that had weighed on every training session, every team talk, every quiet moment.

The table offered a small but significant reward. Espanyol, in 14th, moved three points clear of the bottom three. The message from Gonzalez afterwards was clear: no time for relief. Next stop, Pamplona, and a trip to Osasuna. They will not, he insisted, go there to hide. Momentum, after so long without it, must be chased, not protected.

Mallorca sink as Getafe eye Europe

For Mallorca, the night brought only more anxiety. A 3-1 defeat at Getafe left them in 17th and very much in danger, while boosting the hosts’ push for European football.

Getafe, now seventh, strengthened their bid for a place in the Conference League with a performance full of purpose. Mallorca, by contrast, slipped deeper into trouble, their margin for error narrowing with every week.

At one end of La Liga, Barcelona can afford to treat defeat as a footnote in a title season, a blemish on an otherwise glittering campaign. At the other, nights like these define futures, budgets, and careers.

Alaves, Sevilla, Espanyol, Getafe — all left the pitch with something tangible to cling to. Barcelona left with nothing more than a reminder: once the trophy is won, the league does not stop. For those still fighting, every game is a final.