There are only two teams in Spain and both of them lost on Wednesday night.

Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde hadn’t even arrived in the press room at Butarque where his team had just been beaten 2-1 by Leganés when 542km away Real Madrid went a goal down to Sevilla. He hadn’t been sitting there much more than 60 seconds – about the time it had taken Leganés to score twice – when a ripple went round the room, as Madrid went two down. And he’d only just walked out when Madrid conceded a third, Sergio Busquets still standing there through a side door, head bowed, while outside happy fans headed home, car radios on, edging past the multicoloured 10m-high Lega-ness monster rising from its roundabout lake, barely able to believe what they’d seen – or what they were hearing.

Barcelona had been beaten by Leganés for the first time ever in the eight o’clock kick off; now, in the 10 o’clock game, Madrid were getting beaten at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. Not just beaten – battered. They were 3-0 down, it wasn’t even half-time, and there would be no way back. “There’s no excuse,” Busquets said, back at Butarque, and nor was there any explanation. Or if there was, Valverde didn’t offer one. “This is football and it can happen,” he said. It can, but it’s not supposed to. This was the first time Madrid or Barcelona had been beaten this season; it was also the first time they had both lost in the same round of matches since January 2015 – 141 games ago.

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Wednesday night didn’t seem likely, at least not in Leganés. At one end, a huge banner depicted a shark, warning Barcelona they were up against “Leganodon” and the club’s mini matchday magazine declared: “Why not dream?” However, Leganés started the day bottom, Barcelona top; it is nine years since the Catalans were defeated by the team in 20th, and that was the first time a league leader had ever lost to the team that was last. Wednesday’s game was only 11 minutes old when Philippe Coutinho scored a wonderful opener. Then Leo Messi hit the bar before sending another shot straight at Pichu Cuéllar. Barcelona seemed in control, any chance already gone.

And yet Barcelona were a little flat, only one up, and soon Leganés took a step forward, as if realising that their opponents weren’t so terrifying after all. When the second half began they accelerated and soon they were in the lead, aided by some of the worst defending since some bright spark in Troy said: “Ooh, look at that nice horsey, let’s wheel him in.” A simple pass and a looped cross exposed Sergi Roberto and Thomas Vermaelen, leading to the first, scored by Nabil El Zhar. Then an equally basic ball turned Gerard Piqué, whose “clearance” instead became the perfect pass for Óscar to score the second. Sixty-eight seconds, two goals, and Barcelona were beaten.

“When that happens, it’s clear you’ve done something wrong,” Busquets said.

Something? Pretty much everything. A one point, Barcelona had 85% possession and they also had over half an hour for the comeback, but they had nothing else: no width, no control, no imagination, no creativity; they didn’t even rebel. Butarque was bouncing, Barcelona were falling apart. Two Barça players were nutmegged in two minutes and a minute later Juanfran eased past Vermaelen. Next, Piqué stepped into the penalty area to intercept a goal-kick, rather than let it reach him: a portrait of panic under pressure. There was no referee to blame, no injuries, no bad luck, just a really bad team. One that has already conceded as many in six weeks as in 17 last year, that kept seeking spaces that didn’t exist – when they bothered seeking anything at all – and that created a solitary chance, Cuéllar making a superb double save from Sergi Roberto and Ivan Rakitic. In the last minute, Marc-André ter Stegen went up for a corner but the ball hadn’t reached anyone else all night and it didn’t reach him either. Youssef En-Nesyri headed clear and then collapsed, cramp clawing at his calves, Butarque roaring as the whistle went.

They’d done it. For the second time, Mauricio Pellegrino led a side to victory over Barcelona – Alavés won at the Camp Nou in September 2016 – but for his players, and his club, this was unique. Leganés, beginning only their third year in primera, with a budget a 10th of Barcelona’s, had beaten the double winners. Along with last year’s cup win at the Bernabéu, it might just be their best victory ever. “We can enjoy this now,” Pellegrino said, quietly.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nabil El Zhar celebrates his goal against Barcelona. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Leganés headed back into the dressing room about the same time that Sevilla were heading out of theirs, 524km south. When they got there, pizzas covering the table in the middle, Unai Bustinza lifted El Zhar’s son on to his shoulders, the kid’s exhausted dad falling into the embrace of his coach and all around there was applause, cheers. When Sevilla got back to theirs a couple of hours later, the scenes were similar, Pablo Machín waiting at the door to greet them, staff and substitutes lining up to provide a guard of honour, clapping them through, palms beating backs.

If Leganés’s victory was a surprise, perhaps Sevilla’s was less of one. Zinedine Zidane wasn’t able to win at the Sánchez Pizjuán, where Madrid have lost more times than at any other stadium this century. This was their fourth defeat there in a row, their sixth in seven league visits. Sevilla had gone in having scored 11 in three days – five in Europe last Thursday, six in the league at the weekend.

“I don’t know if it is a good idea to use all your bullets at the start,” Machín had said, but Sevilla came out firing. Just 18 seconds had gone when Thibaut Courtois saved from André Silva. Then Nacho headed away under the bar. Then Wissam Ben Yedder struck over. Then Silva scored. Then Silva scored again. Then Mudo Vázquez hit the bar. Then Ben Yedder scored. 3-0 after 39 minutes. Sevilla were coming from everywhere but Madrid’s left especially – it was hard not to imagine Machín’s plan as a cartoon arrow pointing to a sketch of Marcelo.

Jesús Navas tore into them. Running along behind, head tilted back, legs heavy, eventually arriving in the area to ask what happened, Marcelo couldn’t keep up, but it wasn’t just him: collectively, Madrid couldn’t live with it, overwhelmed by wave after wave of white, a sevillano stampede. Only Gareth Bale’s shot against the post suggested any reaction. Asked for an explanation, Casemiro said: “It’s simple, we gifted them 45 minutes.”

There had been no way back in the second 45. Luka Modric scored one that was ruled out, but the resistance was brief, Marcelo pulled up injured, and a fourth for Sevilla seemed likely, Courtois saving from Pablo Sarabia, Bale producing a superb block, Vázquez hitting over, and the late charges up the pitch endless. At the end, there were olés, ever more prolonged, the ball Sevilla’s along with the victory.

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“No pride, no heart,” wrote mad Madridista Tomás Roncero in AS. “There should be no consolation in how bad Madrid were,” Joan Maria Battle insisted in the Catalan daily Sport, but of course there was some. Its cover cheered: “Muchas gracias, Madrid!”, the editorial calling Wednesday night an exercise in “solidarity in mediocrity”. El Mundo Deportivo opened on “Barça bad, Madrid worse.”

Which is one way of putting it, but not the only way. “GIANTS”, ran the front of Marca. This time it wasn’t accompanied by “fallen” or “slain”: they were not talking about Madrid and Barcelona, the clubs who’ve taken league, cup and Champions League for four years but the teams that defeated them. “What. A. Match. What a fucking team!” Ben Yedder tweeted. Well, quite.

Wednesday was also about Sevilla and Leganés, about the fans bouncing round Butarque and the Pizjuán – and maybe even about everyone else in Spain too.

“This is a night to be enjoyed. Those of us who don’t beat Madrid often will remember this, although the fans here are a bit more used to it,” Machín said. “It’s a pity it’s not the weekend so the night can be long.”

As for Pellegrino, he had sat there at Butarque having defeated Barcelona, speaking in a quiet voice as news came through of the third goal in Seville. “Hopefully this helps us believe in ourselves: we’re Leganés, humble, a family, and this result won’t fool us, but we can enjoy this,” he said. “It was last versus first, but luckily that’s the Spanish league. The best don’t always win, and that’s something to celebrate.”

Talking points

• Fornals: mother mine! First, he scores an absurd goal from 40 yards and then he does that. Somewhere in some corner of San Mamés, Inigo Martínez is still wondering where he has gone. Fornals’s wonderful strike and the two that followed it defeated Athletic Club, so it’s not just Madrid and Barcelona: only three teams were still unbeaten going into week six – the three that have played their entire history in the first division – and all three of them lost, with an 8-1 aggregate score.

• If they win on Thursday night, Alavés – Alavés! – join Barça and Real Madrid at the top on 13 points.

• Seven points off the top a week ago, Atlético are just two behind now. On Saturday, they travel to the Bernabéu.