Barcelona cantered to the title but couldn’t go unbeaten, the Madrid clubs each landed a European trophy and Real Betis were the great entertainers

All that and in the end it came down to this … nothing. There were tears and plenty of emotion, Fernando Torres serenaded off and Andrés Iniesta sitting alone on the Camp Nou turf long into the night, lights out for the last time, but for the first time in history there was no dramatic ending and nothing to play for on the final day of the Spanish season. Not the title, not Europe, not relegation, not the Pichichi, not the Zamora either – and not even a first-ever unbeaten league campaign. Barcelona had lost that record seven days earlier, finally defeated 37 games in, without Leo Messi. Still, they did win a friendly in South Africa three days later, so that’s okay. They also won the league of course, which they were always going to. Only, they weren’t – not really.

This was the season in which not much changed and no one really moved, in which the top four were in place from week seven and in which only Real Betis’s late surge broke up fifth and sixth – where Sevilla and Villarreal had sat for over twenty weeks. “It’s not possible,” Vincenzo Montella said when he was asked if Betis might finish above Sevilla, but it happened. Sevilla did reach the quarter-final of the European Cup for the first time in 60 years, winning at Old Trafford, and made it to the Copa del Rey final.

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At the bottom, only Alavés pulled out of the relegation zone, sacking Luis Zubeldía and his unfeasibly tight trousers, bringing in Abelardo Fernández and beginning an incredible run towards salvation – and they did that relatively early. Levante, the one team in danger of being dragged into it, instead pulled away, finishing 17 points clear of Las Palmas, Deportivo and Málaga – teams that had resided in the bottom three for 22 weeks. Las Palmas sacked Manolo Márquez, turning the page to find Pako, Paquito and Paco but they never got beyond P, or the relegation zone. Up at Deportivo, they had five goalkeepers and not much hope. As for Málaga, well, they had Sheik Al-Thani.

That doesn’t mean the season lacked drama, and it doesn’t mean that the outcome was inevitable. By the end, Barcelona were 17 points clear of Madrid, 14 ahead of Atlético, and they had been clear from the beginning.

“It starts in August, you go through the autumn, the harsh winter, and now it’s spring, and we got here with a certain cushion,” the manager Ernesto Valverde said. Valencia, resuscitated by Marcelino García Toral, had been the first to challenge them and then came Atlético, closing in as spring came. Ultimately neither could stop a team that didn’t lose until it was done, Atlético’s challenge effectively undone with another Messi free kick in March.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lionel Messi scores the goal that effectively secured the title for Barcelona. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

As for Real Madrid, they fell behind early and never recovered. Barcelona were four points ahead of them after just three weeks, seven points ahead by week five, and by week 12 the lead was 10. By the time the second clásico came, Barcelona were already champions. “It looks simple,” Valverde said, but it may have been their most unexpected title in a decade. He arrived at a club in trouble, and politics added to its problems. He later admitted: “in August the atmosphere wasn’t the best.” Somehow, he postponed the crisis for an entire season.

So Barcelona won the league and Cup double but Gareth Bale scored that goal and Madrid made history, winning a third Champions League in a row, a fourth in five years. As Madrid manager, the now-departed Zinedine Zidane won the European Cup with every attempt.

During celebrations at Cibeles, Theo Hernández noted: “We’ve just been past Neptune [where Atlético celebrate titles] and there was nobody there.” Perhaps he should have gone 10 days before, when there were thousands of fans – including his brother – celebrating winning the Europa League at the end of their first season at their new home 20km from the Calderón – a season in which they finished ahead of Madrid. Still, what would he care? He was celebrating the biggest prize of all. Or was it? As Madrid got closer to another European Cup, so the debate started: which title mattered most?

The answer is simple: these ones, of course …

Most disciplined club

At the end of the Seville derby , Betis captain Joaquín warned: “Anyone who gets home before five in the morning gets fined.” Everyone did exactly as they were told.

Most careful club

Barcelona. “If we appeared with two players for €270m, we’d have to resign for irresponsibility,” director Albert Soler said. It’s lucky Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho cost €300m, then.

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Best prediction

Another award for Barcelona, whose director Jordi Mestre was “200% sure” that Neymar was staying.

Best reporter

Gerard Piqué, the man who (not entirely unreasonably) decided that he can do journalism better that all those journalists, with his first big exclusive: “He stays,” Piqué wrote. He didn’t.

Coldest club

Sevilla, who sacked Eduardo Berizzo a few days before Christmas, after he had returned from prostate cancer surgery.

Most surreal sight

Camp Nou: 98,000 seats, 98 people in them.

Best sales pitch

For the first time in history, two Japanese players were on opposing teams in La Liga as Eibar played Getafe. The league decided that this was the chance they needed to get a little love from the land of the rising sun. At each end there was a huge Japan flag with “Hello Japan” written across it, while the same message was flashed up on the advertising boards. Before the game there was an honorary kick-off involving Eibar’s Inui and Getafe’s Gaku and the match was shifted to prime time in Tokyo.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Celta’s Iago Aspas fired in 22 league goals this season, and fired a broadside at one referee in particular. Photograph: Salvador Sas/EPA

Most cunning plan

Iago Aspas, unimpressed with referee Munuera Montero again, had a brilliant idea. “Next time we’ll play in our third kit so that he doesn’t know it’s Celta,” he said.

Best protest

One night an unhappy fan spray-painted his feelings all over the wall of Lucas Pérez’s house. There was just one flaw: the next day a note had been taped over the graffiti accusing the Deportivo striker of being a “money-grabber” and telling him to “go now!”, which read: “Lucas doesn’t live here any more, dickhead.”

Best put down

Before the Galician derby, after Luisinho claimed that Dépor were the “big team” in the region and that Celta were nothing. “It’s true that Deportivo were big once,” Aspas responded. “But they’re not any more. If they were, Luisinho wouldn’t be playing for them.”

Best signing

Nine Saudi players were signed and handed out to managers that didn’t know who they were – they played 13 minutes between them.

Best dad

Mr Maffeo, father of Girona man-marker Pablo, asked what he made of his son following Messi round everywhere, replied: “And what makes you think it wasn’t Messi following him?”

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Best partnership

This sadly short-lived pairing.

Most creative player

Luka Modric.

Most dangerous player

Ruben Semedo. Signed by Villarreal, he racked up as many arrests as starts in Spain. He was accused of pulling out a pistol at a brothel and later sent to jail without bail on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnap, armed robbery and assault.

Most melodramatic player

Deportivo defender Juanfran, tears in his eyes, describing the “worst day of my life”, a day that’s “fucked up for me, my wife, my daughter, and my parents”. A terrible day in which he got a red card. Oh, the pain!

Most realistic player

“After two years I said I would jump off a bridge for Luis Enrique; I’d jump off a ladder for Valverde, it’s still very early.” Ivan Rakitic, not getting carried away just yet.

Dirtiest player

Sergio Ramos, of course – the man who, as Zidane put it, “crapped himself a bit” at Eibar.

Best touch

This. It’s just a pity Clarence Seedorf is a manager now, and not a midfielder.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clarence Seedorf couldn’t translate his playing skills to management. Photograph: Cesar Cebolla/Lagencia/Rex/Shutterstock

Best shot

During Athletic Bilbao’s 1-1 draw at Espanyol, goalkeeper Iago Herrerín hit the Spider Cam. Sadly, it was fine.

Best goal

Nolito’s against Eibar was tasty, so was the touch on this from Aritz Aduriz, and this was as delicate as it was deadly from José Campaña – the goal that saw Levante survive and effectively sent Las Palmas down. Team-mate Chema Rodríguez scored this absurd volley while Morales did this at San Mamés. Over at the Coliseum, the ball was flying in from everywhere: here’s Gaku, Damián Suárez, and Iñaki Williams. “I’ve told him, if anyone asks, say you meant it,” Athletic keeper Herrerín laughed but Williams admitted that his cross-shot was “a bit of both.” Then there are those overhead-kicks of course: first Ronaldo and then Bale.

But this season’s best goal came from the second division, an unstoppable 65-metre shot hit first time that flew right into the corner, from Lugo’s Juan Carlos. Lugo’s goalkeeper Juan Carlos.

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Best goal celebration

Valencia’s Rodrigo Moreno and his orange wig.

Best game

Three 2-2s, three 3-2s, two 5-3s, a 6-3, a 4-0, two 5-0s, a 4-4 and a 1-0 win at the Bernabéu. If there was one rule to follow this season it was: always watch Betis. The best might just have been their 6-3 defeat to Valencia, a match that had nine different goal scorers and might have had 10 but for a penalty save from Neto.

Yes, it was all about Betis. But then, suddenly, it was about Barcelona, just when it seemed to be all over. “We couldn’t believe it; we were a bit stunned,” Levante’s José Luis Morales said after his team defeated the team that had not lost all season. 5-1 down, Barcelona made it 5-2, then 5-3, and then 5-4. There were 20 twenty minutes left, but it wasn’t to be. Nine times they had come from behind this season; the 10th was beyond them. On the penultimate weekend of the season, they were Invictus no more.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Antonio Sanabria celebrates his winner for Real Betis at the Bernabéu. Photograph: Javier Lopez/EPA

Best manager

“This is the worst team I have ever coached.” Somehow, motivational genius Paco Jémez, with his fat pink ties and testicular talk, never managed to get the best from his players, so best to go elsewhere for this award. Seville, say? “I’ve looked at the players’ eyes and at their bollocks, which are red and white,” Joaquín Caparrós said, which kind of suggests that Sevilla’s squad might have been better off seeing a doctor than a new manager.

Zinedine Zidane won the Champions League again – making him the club’s most successful European manager ever– and Ernesto Valverde took Barcelona to the double, giving them a collective mission albeit one led by Messi. Asked what he did, he replied: “Tried not to get in the way”, which was typical of him but not entirely accurate. Marcelino brought Valencia back, a welcome return for a genuinely huge club. The winner though is Quique Setien, the man who said his Betis team had done in one year what they hoped to do in three and who just makes football fun.

Player of the year

“If we took the Barcelona shirt off Messi and put him in an Atlético shirt, we might have won,” Diego Simeone said, pretty much speaking for everyone. “It is clearly visible just how decisive Messi is in this competition,” Atletico’s coach added. Among the many moments this season there was one against Betis when he did something so silly, even for him, that you could hear the intake of breath all around the stadium, then a roar, then baffled applause. Afterwards, Joaquín stood analysing the match. “When you’re up against Messi, who ... well, there’s nothing you can say about him any more.” Betis goalkeeper Antonio Adan put it more neatly: “he makes this sport better.”

Quick guide Sid's La Liga team of the season Show Hide First XI GK: Jan Oblak (Atlético) RB: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona) CB: Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona) CB: Marc Bartra (Betis) LB: Jordi Alba (Barcelona) M: Joaquín (Betis) M: Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona) M: Geoffrey Kongdobia (Valencia) – pictured F: Lionel Messi (Barcelona) F: Antoine Griezmann (Atlético) F: Iago Aspas (Celta) Substitutes Fabián (Betis), Gabriel (Leganés), Marcelo, Modric, Ronaldo, Nacho (Madrid), Parejo, Guedes (Valencia), Saúl (Atlético), Piqué, Sergi Roberto, Busquets, Suárez, Ter Stegen, (Barcelona), Rodri, Fornals (Villarreal), Portu, Stuani (Girona), Moreno (Espanyol), Morales (Levante), José Ángel (Eibar). Photograph: Ander Gillenea/AFP



