Barcelona players didn’t even have to get out of bed today (May 16th) to win their 19th Spanish Primera Liga title as their arch enemies Real Madrid handed it to them on a silver platter by managing to lose 3-2 at Villarreal.

Second-place Madrid were attempting to win their third title in a row, but went into their game eight points behind Barcelona and came out of it eight points behind, with only two games left on the schedule. So you don’t really have to be a rocket scientist to realize the gig is up for Madrid, for this season anyway.

Barcelona play Real Mallorca on May 17th, but after a night of celebrating, who know what kind of shape they’ll be in, or if they’ll even show up at all for that matter.

Robert Pires, Ruben Cani and Joan Capdevila drove the final nails into the hearts of Real players as they each scored, while Rafael Van der Vaart and Gonzalo Higuain answered back for Madrid.

Real knew things weren’t going to be easy, especially after they found themselves behind 1-0 after only 16 minutes when Ariel Ibagaza delivered a cross and the 35-year-old Pires hammered home a powerful header from near the penalty spot.

That goal took the wind out of Real’s sails pretty early and they didn’t muster up much of anything for the rest of the first half as Villarreal took it to them.

For some inexplicable reason, Madrid manager Juande Ramos made the brilliant move of leaving his top scorer Gonzalo Higuain on the bench for the first 45 minutes and brought him on in the second half to replace Klaas Jan Huntelaar. It’s moves like this that drove the clueless Ramos out of Tottenham in the English Premier League by the way. Higuain wasted little time in making his manager look stupid as the Argentinian set up Van der Vaart to tie the game at 1-1.

Madrid couldn’t build on their momentum though, and Cani scored to give Villarreal a 2-1 advantage in the 62nd minute as he unleashed a shot that beat Madrid keeper Casillas. Things looked a little brighter in the 88th minute when Higuain made Ramos look even more foolish for leaving him on the bench for half the game while in a title race as he leveled the game at 2-2, even if he might have been offside.

The wall finally came tumbling down though just two minutes later as Capdevila ended all hopes of Madrid capturing a third-straight title as he tapped home the winner.

In other Spanish action, Sevilla and Deportivo Coruna are still fighting for European spots after drawing with relegation-fighting teams. Third-placed Sevilla (64 points) drew 0-0 at Osasuna to move five points ahead of fourth place in a bid to secure the third automatic Champions League qualification place for next season.

Deportivo stayed in sixth place with 57 points after Ivan Riki scored a late equaliser to draw 1-1 with Getafe at home. Getafe are in 14th spot with 38 points, which is one more than Osasuna has (37 points) and just four above the relegation zone.