When Barcelona Could Win 2025–26 La Liga Title: Real Madrid Face Nightmare Scenario

Barça would love to be crowned champions against their fiercest rivals.

Barcelona are closing in on back-to-back La Liga titles. | Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

The perfect Easter weekend for Barcelona means they’re closing in on back-to-back La Liga titles, having extended their lead over closest rivals Real Madrid to seven points.

Álvaro Arbeloa, who earned plenty of plaudits for his team’s dismantling of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Champions League, took full responsibility for Madrid’s shock defeat at the relegation-threatened Mallorca—a result that evidently emboldened the league leaders.

Barça were thumped 4–0 at the Metropolitano in the Copa del Rey semifinals, but refused to allow such scars to hinder them on Saturday night, even after falling behind.

The visitors certainly got the rub of the green with the big refereeing decisions, eventually making use of their man advantage when Robert Lewandowski rather fortuitously rebounded Juan Musso’s parry beyond Atlético Madrid’s reserve goalkeeper in stoppage time.

A point, after Madrid’s defeat, would hardly have been a disaster for the league leaders, but Barça’s victory has seen them take a giant leap towards the title. Now, they’re dreaming of securing a second consecutive crown when their eternal competitive rivals visit Catalonia next month.

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Barcelona Could Win La Liga Title With El Clásico Triumph

Barça welcome Madrid to Camp Nou on May 10. | Alberto Gardin/NurPhotoa/Getty Images

With 64 La Liga titles between them, El Clásico has long been a definitive fixture in shaping the dynamic at the summit of the Spanish top flight. Blockbuster duels between Barcelona and Real Madrid set tones and lay down markers, although the chasing Los Blancos were unable to fully exploit their victory in the first Clásico of 2025–26 back in October.

Barcelona’s now-comfortable seven-point lead means there’s a chance they could be confirmed champions with a win over Madrid at Camp Nou on May 10.

That seismic even can take place if both teams win their next four La Liga matches. Barcelona take on Espanyol, Celta Vigo, Getafe and Osasuna, while Madrid face Girona, Alavés, Real Betis and Espanyol.

With the Champions League quarterfinals to consider and the division’s top two combining for nine defeats this season, maintaining 100% records over the next month is hardly a guarantee.

Barcelona just need to be either seven, eight or nine points clear entering the fixture to seal the title with a Clásico victory. The Catalan giants could even wrap it up before the May meeting if they win their next three fixtures and Madrid lose all three games.

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Has This Have Ever Happened Before?

A dominant Barcelona Femení thrashed Madrid 5–0 to seal a third-straight league title in 2022. | Eric Alonso/Getty Images

For the men’s team, no. However, in 2022, the imperious Barcelona Femení claimed their third league title in succession with a thumping 5–0 win over Real Madrid Femení in mid-March. At that point, they’d won all 24 league encounters and were 19 points clear of second.

For Hansi Flick’s side, downing your biggest rivals to confirm yourselves as Spain’s supreme force will be too big an opportunity to pass up. However, Barça won’t mind if they’ve already sealed the title before Madrid’s visit on May 10.

That, of course, would mean a ’pasillo,’ a guard of honor, from the visitors. Well, maybe not. While Barcelona endured the humiliation of applauding league winners Madrid onto the Santiago Bernabéu turf before suffering an emphatic 4–1 defeat in May 2008, Los Blancos have previously been less forthcoming on the guard of honor front.

A Zinedine Zidane-led Madrid opted against it at the end of the 2017–18 season, and, more recently, Kylian Mbappé instructed his teammates not to give Barça a guard of honor after their victory in the Spanish Super Cup at the start of the year.

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