Watched by its grieving coach, Barcelona retains Spanish league title by beating rival Real Madrid

Watched by its grieving coach Barcelona won its second straight Spanish league title and 29th overall with a comfortable 20 win over Real Madrid at Camp Nou on Sunday adding to its rivals troubled seasonGoals by Marcus Rashford in the ninth minute and Ferran Torres in the 18th gave Barcelona the victory and an insurmountable 14point advantage over its fierce rival with three rounds remaining in La LigaBarcelona coach Hansi Flick was in the dugout for Sundays clasico following the death of his father which Barcelona announced hours before kickoff Players from both teams wore black armbands and there was a moment of silence before kickoffA draw would also have been enough for the Catalan club to seal its third league title in four seasons Madrid which remains the most successful club in the league with 36 trophies is ending a second consecutive season without a major titleSundays defeat at Barcelona capped an embarrassing week for Madrid marked by altercations between players in training that led the club to fine Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni 500000 euros 589000 eachRashford opened the scoring for the hosts with a wonderfully taken free kick curling the ball over the wall and into the top corner Torres added to the lead from inside the area after a flick from Dani OlmoThis is like a familyFlicks father reportedly died overnight The coach celebrated Barcelonas goals and looked emotional after the final whistle I will never forget this day It was a tough day for me It starts with this news that my father passed away but here my team is fantastic Flick said I really love it this is like a family and they gave everything today and Im really proud Its amazing in this stadium and also in the clasico against Real Madrid to win La LigaThere was a brief scuffle between players in the 51st minute after Olmo confronted a Madrid player Olmo was shown a yellow card Madrids Jude Bellingham had a goal disallowed for offside in the 63rdBrazil forward Raphinha replaced Rashford in the 64th to return from a long injury layoff Barcelona has been playing the final league games without the injured Lamine Yamal its biggest star Yamal was on the field lifting the trophy along with his teammatesNo MbappeMadrid was without the injured Kylian Mbappe the leagues leading scorer with 24 goals The France forward failed to recover from a lefthamstring ailment that has kept him sidelined since late AprilMbappe last week addressed a fresh wave of criticism of him in Spain insisting he was fully committed to the club and to recovering from his latest injury Some Madrid fans had expressed concern that the France forward was saving himself for the upcoming World Cup He posted a story during Sundays game while it was being shown on a television along with supporting words for the club and a white heartMadrid was also without Valverde who hurt his head in the altercation with Tchouameni after allegedly accidentally knocking his head on a table It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training last week Alvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a minor incident with a teammate Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rudiger got into a scuffleArbeloa under fireThe loss in Sundays clasico is likely to increase criticism of coach Alvaro Arbeloa who was promoted from Madrids reserve team when Xabi Alonso was fired in January The rumors of a possible return of Jose Mourinho to the club were only likely to increaseTheres not a lot we can say Arbeloa said We understand how frustrated and dissatisfied that the fans must be The only thing we can do is work and look to the future learn from everything that we have done badly this year Real Madrid is always back we have fallen many times and we have risen many timesSingersongwriters Olivia Rodrigo and Nathy Peluso were among the celebrities at the stadium Rodrigo an American multiGrammy winner had her logo appearing in the teams jersey as part of the clubs partnership with Spotify Barcelona this season also won the Spanish Super Cup It has won 11 consecutive games in the leagueConcerns over Nico WilliamsSpain forward Nico Williams had to be substituted before halftime in Athletic Bilbaos 10 loss to Valencia at home prompting more concerns ahead of the World Cup Williams appeared to suffer a hamstring injury and was replaced by brother Inaki Williams in the 37th minuteNico Williams had already been sidelined for several weeks earlier this year because of another injury Athletic did not immediately release details about Sundays injury The 23yearold forward has been a regular in Spains squad playing in attack along with YamalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever