La Liga: Lamine Yamal leads Barcelona to title win with stunning strike
Barcelona clinched the La Liga title as wonderkid Lamine Yamal scored another stunning goal in their derby win at Espanyol.
The 17-year-old curled a fantastic shot into the top corner from the edge of the box to confirm his side as champions with two games to go and a seven-point advantage over Real Madrid.
Fermin Lopez added a second goal deep into injury time from Yamal’s pass.
Barca claimed the decisive opener in the 53rd minute. It was Yamal’s 17th goal of the season as cemented his place as one of the world’s most exciting players of any age.
Espanyol had defender Leandro Cabrera sent off with 10 minutes left for lashing out with his arm to strike Yamal as they challenged for the ball.
Having already won the Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup, the title success confirmed a clean sweep of domestic trophies for Hansi Flick in his first season as Barca boss.
His side also beat Real Madrid in both cup finals, having won all four Clasico meetings this season.
“We’ve always thought positively, and we could feel it looking at training sessions. At Barça, you have to win titles and three titles is just great,” Flick told Movistar Plus.
“It’s always important to be mentally strong. That is what we looked for throughout the year. Winning the Super Cup in January gave us confidence. It was great to see how the players have reached their highest level and others have improved.”
Barcelona, who also reached the Champions League semi-finals where they lost to Inter Milan in a dramatic encounter, were deserved champions with 169 goals in all competitions.
Barcelona will have an open-top bus parade in the city on Friday and receive the trophy at Sunday’s home game against Villarreal (18:00 BST).