Barcelona's Pursuit of 100 Points Ends in Vitoria
Newly crowned champions, but beaten all the same. Barcelona’s pursuit of La Liga’s fabled 100-point mark died on a chilly night in Vitoria, undone by an Alaves side fighting for their lives and unwilling to play the role of respectful host.
Hansi Flick’s team needed three wins from three to reach the century. They stumbled at the first step. A 1-0 defeat, a flat performance, and the record talk evaporated in first-half stoppage time.
Diabate strikes, Alaves breathe
The goal that changed everything came right on the cusp of the interval. A routine corner, a simple second ball, and Barcelona switched off.
Antonio Blanco rose to meet the delivery and headed it back into the danger area. The visiting defence froze for a fatal heartbeat. Ibrahim Diabate did not. He reacted quickest, lashing his finish past Wojciech Szczesny and detonating a roar inside the stadium that spoke of survival, not style points.
For Quique Sanchez Flores and Alaves, it was a moment of oxygen. The win dragged them out of the relegation zone and up to 15th, a huge psychological swing in a season that has been about staying alive rather than dreaming big.
They earned it the hard way. Alaves harried, tackled, and chased, turning every loose ball into a duel. They sat deep when they had to, then broke forward with conviction whenever Barcelona’s structure loosened.
Champions with their foot off the gas
Barcelona arrived as back-to-back league winners, the euphoria of Sunday’s Clasico triumph still fresh, the open-top bus parade still echoing in their legs. Their football looked like it.
There was possession, plenty of it. Control without incision. They moved the ball, but rarely moved Alaves.
Marcus Rashford offered thrust from the flank, running at defenders and trying to inject tempo into a team that looked half a beat slow. The patterns were familiar, the urgency was not. Flick’s selection underlined the night’s secondary priority: minutes managed, young legs trusted.
The German coach handed a debut to 21-year-old centre-back Alvaro Cortes, one of several changes from the side that had secured the title at the Bernabeu. This was a night for rotation and rhythm rather than risk.
Flick did not hide from the nature of the contest.
“It was not an easy game, they battled in a hard way, but it's OK because they are fighting to stay in La Liga and this is normal,” he said afterwards, leaning on the positives. The goal conceded “in the last minute of the first half” stung, but he pointed instead to the youngsters involved and the chance to manage workloads in a long season.
Alaves refuse to crack
If Barcelona expected Alaves to fade after the break, they misread the mood.
Early in the second half, Diabate again threatened to tear the game away from them, driving in a strike that Szczesny had to beat away. The home side sensed a second goal; the champions looked more concerned with not conceding it than with mounting a furious response.
Barcelona’s attacking play remained strangely muted. Half-chances, crosses, and hopeful shots replaced the sharp combinations that had delivered the title. Alaves, compact and disciplined, kept them at arm’s length and waited for their own moment to kill the contest.
It nearly came through Jon Guridi. He slipped in behind, beat Szczesny with a low drive across goal, and watched the ball crash against the post. The stadium groaned, but the message was clear: this was not a smash-and-grab. Alaves were matching the champions stride for stride.
Barcelona never truly pinned them back. The clock wound down, the anxiety in the stands rose, yet Sanchez Flores’s side held firm, every clearance cheered like a goal, every tackle another step away from the drop.
When the final whistle went, Alaves had more than three points. They had belief.
Sevilla rise from the brink
Earlier in the day, another club in trouble found its voice.
Sevilla, dragged into an uncomfortable relegation conversation in recent months, staged a wild comeback to beat Villarreal 3-2 and haul themselves towards safety. Down 2-0 inside 20 minutes against a side sitting third, they looked buried. They refused to accept the script.
Gerard Moreno and Georges Mikautadze had fired Villarreal into what appeared a commanding lead. Sevilla were reeling, their season threatening to unravel in real time.
Then the tide turned.
Oso struck to halve the deficit, Kike Salas levelled before the break, and suddenly the team that has spent months looking over its shoulder was playing with freedom. On 72 minutes, Akor Adams completed the turnaround, his finish sealing a third straight victory and lifting Sevilla up to 10th, four points clear of the bottom three.
For Salas, it was about more than numbers.
“It's an indescribable feeling, giving back to the fans all the love they give us,” the defender said, summing up a night when the bond between pitch and stands felt restored. All this in a week dominated by reports that former defender Sergio Ramos is close to fronting a takeover of the club alongside an investment firm. Off-field upheaval may lie ahead, but on the pitch, Sevilla have finally found momentum.
Tears in Barcelona, but in blue and white
In Barcelona’s orbit, another Catalan club finally found release.
Espanyol, stuck in a nightmare run stretching across 18 league games without a win, beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0 to claim their first victory of 2026. Relief poured out of the stands and the dugout.
Pere Milla broke the deadlock after the break, and Kike Garcia’s late goal settled it, pushing Espanyol up to 14th and three points clear of the relegation zone. When the second goal went in, coach Manolo Gonzalez could not hold back the emotion.
“It's been one of the worst experiences of my professional and personal life,” he admitted of the winless streak. The tears in his eyes as the final minutes ticked away told the rest of the story. This was more than a result; it was a release valve.
There is no time to linger. “Now we have to go to Pamplona and win against Osasuna on Sunday,” Gonzalez said. No talk of safety first. No parking the bus. “We can't go there to play it safe. We have to take this momentum as far as possible.”
Mallorca sink as Getafe climb
At the other end of the emotional spectrum, Mallorca’s problems deepened.
A 3-1 defeat at Getafe left them marooned in 17th, still dangerously close to the trapdoor. For the hosts, the win did more than steady the ship. It kept alive their push for European football, strengthening their bid for a place in the Conference League as they tightened their grip on seventh.
Mallorca’s situation now looks increasingly precarious. While Alaves and Espanyol punched their way upwards, the islanders slipped further into trouble, watching rivals seize points they could not find.
Barcelona, already champions, can absorb a night like this in Vitoria. For the clubs beneath them, every game now feels like a season condensed into 90 minutes. The title race is over. The real drama is in the scramble to stay alive.
