One title, two Champions League places and seven relegation spots: Final day in Serie A, La Liga and Ligue 1

All the games to watch out for and where the big prizes will be won and lost across La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1

Karl Matchett
Friday 20 May 2022 07:26 BST
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It’s all down to the final game of the season in most of Europe’s top leagues now, outside and beyond the confines of the Premier League.

Around the continent is still a huge amount on the line, including the league title in Italy, a smattering of relegation places and some vital Champions League places to fight for.

Here’s where we stand heading into the final weekend.

Serie A

Just one more game without defeat - that’s all AC Milan need to finally end their long wait for a title. It has been more than a decade since their last Scudetto, but win or draw at mid-table Sassuolo on Sunday evening and it’s finally in the bag.

Milan will also be champions if Inter Milan fail to win their own game at home to Sampdoria at the same time, while the only combination which will see the Nerazzurri retain their title is a win for them while Sassuolo beat the Rossoneri. If the sides finish level on points, AC are champions by virtue of head-to-head in the Milan derbies.

The Champions League spots are all filled now - Napoli and Juventus the others - while Lazio need a point to guarantee fifth and the Europa League ahead of Roma.

At the bottom, it’s two from three to go down with Venezia. Genoa and Cagliari occupy the relegation spots at present, but Salernitana remain in danger.

Genoa will stay up on head to head if they get a point and Cagliari lose at bottom club Venezia; Salernitana cannot be relegated unless they fail to win while Cagliari do so.

La Liga

In Spain, the title is long sewn up by Real Madrid, while Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have Champions League spots confirmed. Sevilla are also guaranteed fourth ahead of Real Betis due to head-to-head goal difference, even if they end up on level points.

Betis can simply match Real Sociedad’s result to guarantee fifth, but as they are away to Real Madrid on Friday night, defeat would mean they’d be hoping for nothing more than a draw for La Real against Atleti on Sunday.

At the bottom, Alaves and Levante are already down and it’s likely out of Cadiz and Mallorca for the third spot. They are level on points and Mallorca have the head-to-head benefit, so the onus is on Cadiz to win at Alaves and hope Mallorca fail to do the same at Osasuna.

Mallorca have announced they will cover the vast majority of ticket and travel costs for their supporters to the game, as they bid to survive. Granada could also yet be relegated, only a point ahead, but they’d have to fail to win and both the others triumph, and the Andalucians are at home to Espanyol - the worst side in La Liga this year by away form.

Ligue 1

In France it’s a tense and tight fight for the Champions League places, with PSG having won the title long ago.

Monaco’s amazing run of form has propelled them from mid-table to second place, which carries a berth straight to the group stages next season. Third, currently Marseille, is a play-off spot. The two sides are level on points and if they both lose and Rennes, fourth, win at Lille, then all three finish on 68 points and goal difference is the divider in Ligue - which would see Rennes snare second, Monaco third.

Other than that scenario, Monaco will take second if they match Marseille’s result, while there’s a race for the Europas, too.

Fourth qualifies for the group stage of the Europa League and fifth is the play-offs for the Europa Conference League.

Rennes, Strasbourg and Nice can all still finish fourth to sixth, while Lens could sneak fifth if they win and results go their way on Saturday night, when the entire final round is played simultaneously.

To complicate matters and permutations at the top, several of those sides face each other: Lens vs Monaco, Marseille vs Strasbourg and Lille vs Rennes.

At the bottom, nobody is yet guaranteed down, but it’s looking bad for Bordeaux - they need to win big and hope neither Saint-Etienne or Metz get a point, with the latter being hammered to aid a goal difference swing of 12. Assuming that doesn’t happen, one of Saint-Etienne and Metz will go down and the other will face a relegation play-off.

They are level on points but the latter’s goal difference is much better, so ASSE need the better result to survive for now, at least - and Metz are away to PSG.

Bundesliga

Germany’s top flight has finished now, with Bayern champions and RB Leipzig snaring fourth on the final day to join Dortmund and Leverkusen in the Champions League. Union Berlin finished behind them by a point, while Freiburg’s back-to-back defeats to end the season proved costly as they dropped from fourth to sixth.

They could, however, earn a measure of consolation as they face Leipzig in the DFB Pokal final on Saturday.

At the bottom, Stuttgart’s last-minute winner on the final day kept them out of the relegation play-off spot and dumped Hertha Berlin in there instead - they now face a two-legged encounter with Hamburg to see who will be in the top flight next season. The first leg was in Berlin on Thursday; the reverse fixture takes place on Monday night.

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