The European football season is rapidly coming to a close, with just a handful of games left to decide the fate of several teams in the continent’s top five leagues — whether that be avoiding the drop or suffering relegation, if they are going to play in Europe next season or even who will be crowned champions of their respective division.
Title races are arguably the most exciting though, and at the time of writing just one team have been confirmed as champions from Europe’s top five leagues. That said, read on as we take a look at the current standings from across the continent and see just what is going on toward the top of the table.
Premier League
Kicking things off with what many believe is Europe’s most elite domestic league, Manchester City haven’t had it as easy as Pep Guardiola would have liked in recent seasons. Liverpool pushed the Sky Blues all the way last year as Man City fought back from a final day scare against Aston Villa and Arsenal are hot on their tails this time around.
It was the Gunners to lose until last month, however, as the north Londoners had a healthy lead over their Manchester rivals. But a run of four games without a win cost them the top spot and the defending champions can go four clear if they win their game in hand. It’s still incredibly close at the top, but the football betting is massively in Man City’s favor.
Bundesliga
A league which is usually rather uncompetitive and wrapped up by this stage of the season, Bayern Munich are being kept on their toes by rivals Borussia Dortmund right until the end by the look of things. Thomas Tuchel’s side leapfrogged BVB into the top spot a couple of weeks ago as they were held to a draw by VfL Bochum, but there’s still just one point in it.
Bayern will be confident they can win their final three games as they aim for an 11th straight Bundesliga success, but it’s far from over as they still need to host third place RB Leipzig at the Allianz Arena in the penultimate game week while Dortmund arguably have the easier run-in.
Ligue 1
Six points clear with four games left to play at the time of writing, it’s hard to see any other outcome than Paris Saint-Germain lifting the Ligue 1 title for a second successive season and the ninth time since their dominance began at the beginning of the 2010s.
The Paris side have lost six times this year, which is the second most defeats they have had in the last nine seasons with the most coming when they were beaten eight times in 2020-21 as Lille were the surprise victors of the French top flight, but it’s unlikely to cost them the title this year.
Credit must be given to Franck Haise and the fantastic job he has done with Lens in second, getting them promoted back to Ligue 1 in 2020 and already taking them so far up the table.
La Liga
While the La Liga title isn’t officially wrapped up just yet, it might as well be as Barcelona are on the cusp of their first success since 2019. The Catalan side need just one win to be confirmed champions of Spain for a 27th time and will likely come against Espanyol as they are due to travel to their city rivals next time out.
Xavi’s side have lost just three times all season and are currently 13 points clear of Atletico Madrid in second. Real Madrid are currently in third, one point behind their capital rivals, but yet another Champions League success would surely make up for their shortcomings on the defense of their La Liga title.
Serie A
The only top five league that has already had the champion decided, Napoli won the Serie A for the first time in 33 years earlier this month. Like Barca, Napoli have lost just three times all season and have been mightily impressive en-route to Scudetto glory — scoring 70 goals and conceding just 23 after 34 games.
Luciano Spalletti might be slightly disappointed with the fact Napoli were knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals by AC Milan when many believed they had a great chance of going all the way to the final on current form. But, ultimately, the most important thing was holding on to win the Serie A and they did that.
