How Barcelona could seal the La Liga title in El Clasico – or get a guard of honour from Real Madrid | OneFootball

It is now almost certain that Barcelona will be the champions of La Liga for the 2025-26 season. It’s just a question of ‘when?’ rather than ‘if?’ at this point.

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona look set to make it back-to-back league titles. It’ll be the fifth time that the Catalan club have managed to retain their La Liga crown since Real Madrid last did, way back in 2007-08.

Saturday afternoon’s relatively routine 2-0 victory away to Getafe saw Barcelona extend their lead over Los Blancos to 11 points. There are just five games left to play, ensuring that – save for the most remarkable, freak set of results – that only pride will be at stake when the two clubs meet next month.

But how much pride, exactly? We’ve taken a look at the scenarios ahead of the first Clasico at the newly revamped Camp Nou on May 10th.

Scenario 1 – Guard of honour

Real Madrid actually make two trips to the city of Barcelona in as many weeks. Next weekend, before El Clasico, they travel to face Espanyol.

The permutations are simple. Win that and they’ll keep the title race alive – technically, mathematically, at least – going into their clash with Barcelona. An eleven-point gap would keep the faintest flicker of hope alive with four games to play.

Perhaps more importantly, it would stop them from being expected to applaud Barcelona’s players onto the pitch with a guard of honour ahead of kick-off. If the gap is extended, with Madrid dropping points while Barcelona beat Osasuna, that would be the custom.

Should this scenario come to pass, expect all kinds of polemics in the Spanish sports media.

Whether Madrid would actually give Barcelona’s players a ‘pasillo‘ (the Spanish word for it) remains an open question. Back in 2017-18, Madrid refused to give Barcelona’s players a guard of honour in similar circumstances.

“I am not the one who decides if there is a pasillo,” then manager Zinedine Zidane said at the time.

“We must explain the situation — after the Club World Cup I understand it was not important for them to do it.

“Some say it is as they were not in the competition, but that is not true. You have to win the Champions League to get to the Club World Cup, and we are all in that.

“So they did not do it. We respect what Barca have done, to win La Liga is the most difficult, I have always said that. I congratulate them.

“If they had done the pasillo… I am not breaking any tradition, but neither will I do something that they did not do.”

Let’s see. But given that there is no love lost between the two clubs’ hierarchies, with the Negreira refereeing scandal straining the relationship further, we wouldn’t hold our breath.

Scenario 2 – Barcelona seal the title in El Clasico

As previously stated, Madrid beating Espanyol keeps everything in play going into the Clasico.

If the gap remains at eleven points, Barcelona will need just a draw against the old enemy to make it over the line and seal the title.

If Barcelona lose against Osasuna and Madrid draw with Espanyol, that would see the gap at 12 points.

In that case, with La Liga using head-to-head as opposed to goal difference as the decider, then Flick’s men would not only be required to win but to better the result (a 2-1 victory for Real Madrid) in the reverse fixture – i.e. win by two clear goals. There’s no away goals provisions in the head-to-head.

We’re really getting into the weeds here, but in that scenario if Barcelona won by just one goal, they’ll have wrapped up the title by all intents and purposes but not officially.

After head-to-head, it then goes to goal difference – in which Barcelona’s is massively superior (+20 better than Madrid’s).

Scenario 3 – Real Madrid’s blushes are spared

No matter what happens next weekend, Barcelona will at the very least be in a position to win the title in the upcoming Clasico.

If Madrid beat Espanyol, and Barcelona lose to Osasuna, that would see the gap close to eight points.

In that case, Barcelona would be required to win El Clasico in order to seal the title and extend the gap back beyond nine points heading into the final three matches.

Of course, Madrid can always go to the Camp Nou and get the result they need to restore some pride and delay Barcelona’s celebrations until later in the run-in. With star man Lamine Yamal out for the remainder of the season, and question marks over the return date of the similarly important Raphinha, that’s far from the realms of possibility.