Just too good: how Real Madrid’s depth ensured a canter to the title

Over two hours had passed since the final whistle went on Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory over Cadiz and some of their players were still inside inside the Santiago Bernabéu watching on TV when they officially found out they were champions, but they had known for a long time. The title, eventually delivered by Girona’s 4-2 victory over Barcelona 681 kilometres to the north-east and confirmed at 8.30pm on the 34th Saturday of the season, did not see them board an open-top bus down the Castellana to Cibeles, although fans did gather by the goddess of fertility. There was more to do – Bayern Munich come on Wednesday night – and, besides, this was already done.

It had been for some time. Two weeks earlier, Jude Bellingham had scored a 94th-minute goal to win the clásico, their last remaining contenders eliminated, if you could truly call Barcelona that. Two months earlier they had put four past the nearest thing they had to genuine challengers, effectively eliminating Girona too: they were the most exciting, the most surprising team but they would not be champions. As for Atlético Madrid, the only team to defeat Real all season, they had eliminated themselves even sooner, gone by Christmas. This hadn’t been a race; ultimately, it had been a parade.

The night Girona lost 4-0 to Madrid in February there was a hint of relief in the words of their manager, Michel Sánchez, as if he had been liberated from a lie, the obligation for the season’s great revelation to do a Leicester. “When you face someone this good, you see your own reality, and this isn’t our league,” he said. Instead, it was Madrid’s, and almost from the beginning. That may feel over simplistic – and those early weeks didn’t yet suggest domination – but with four games