European football round-up: Matchweek April 24-27

European football roundup for April 24-27 as Barca pull clear, Bayern go wild, PSG take control and Inter wobble. The title races are getting ruthless

European Round-Up: Barcelona Are Walking It, Bayern Munich Are Taking The Piss

Barcelona are not chasing La Liga anymore. They are collecting it.

Across Spain, Germany, France and Italy, the weekend gave us title races dying, title races pretending to live, and Bayern Munich doing nonsense that only Bayern Munich can get away with. 

You can be 3-0 up against them and still feel like the match has not started.

Winners of the week

Barcelona gained the most because they did their job while Real Madrid did Real Madrid-in-crisis things. 

Barca beat Getafe 2-0 through Fermín López and Marcus Rashford, moving 11 points clear after Madrid’s 1-1 draw with Real Betis. 

Five games left. Eleven points clear. That is not pressure anymore. That is admin.

PSG also had a very grown-up weekend. 

They went to Angers, won 3-0, finished with 10 men after Goncalo Ramos saw red, and still moved six points clear in Ligue 1. 

Lee Kang-in scored and assisted, Beraldo also had a goal and assist, and Lens’ 3-3 draw at Brest made the whole thing sweeter for Paris.

Bayern are in their own category. 

They were 3-0 down at Mainz at half-time, then remembered they are Bayern. 

Nicolas Jackson, Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala and Harry Kane turned it into a 4-3 win. 

That is not football. That is bullying with extra steps.

Lyon deserve a mention too. 

A 3-2 win over Auxerre, with Roman Yaremchuk scoring twice, kept them strong in the Ligue 1 Champions League race. 

After beating PSG last week, this was the type of follow-up that says the run is real, not vibes.

Losers of the week

Real Madrid are the obvious losers because their La Liga title race now looks like a WhatsApp group nobody wants to leave. 

A 1-1 draw at Betis while Barcelona beat Getafe means Madrid are 11 points behind with five matches left. That is not a gap. That is a divorce.

But the dustbin award goes to Mainz. Sorry, no sympathy. You cannot lead Bayern 3-0 at half-time at home and still lose 4-3. That is the sort of result that should come with a club-wide apology email. Dominik Kohr, Paul Nebel and Sheraldo Becker gave Mainz the dream. Then Bayern’s bench turned it into a trauma session.

Inter also embarrassed themselves a bit, even if the title is still basically theirs. Marcus Thuram and Yann Bisseck had them 2-0 up at Torino, then Giovanni Simeone and Nikola Vlašić dragged it back to 2-2. Inter are still 10 points clear, but blowing a two-goal lead when the champagne is already chilling is unserious behaviour.

Marseille should feel annoyed too. A 1-1 draw with Nice in a European race is not a disaster, but it is not enough either. These are the games that turn “we are building something” into “why are we fifth again?”

The race update

La Liga is done unless Barcelona start giving away points like souvenirs.

They are 11 clear, Rashford is scoring, Fermin is stepping up, and Hansi Flick’s side look like a team that can smell the trophy. 

Madrid need miracles, dropped points, and probably a group prayer.

Serie A is also close to being wrapped. Inter are on 79 points, Napoli sit second on 69 after beating Cremonese 4-0, Milan are third on 67, and Juventus are fourth on 64 after that goalless draw at San Siro. 

Milan-Juve had “top-four protection racket” written all over it. Nobody wanted to lose, so nobody entertained us.

Ligue 1 is still alive, but PSG now have control. 

Six points clear after Angers, with Lens dropping points at Brest, is a proper weekend swing. 

Lens showed fight by coming from 3-0 down to draw 3-3, but title races do not give trophies for character arcs.

Bundesliga? Bayern already won it. The only race left is how ridiculous they can make the numbers look.

One thing nobody is talking about

Bayern have scored 113 Bundesliga goals this season with three league games left, putting them 12 away from Torino’s old 125-goal record from 1947/48. 

That stat reframes their whole season. 

This is not just another Bayern title. 

This is a team trying to turn the league into a training drill with spectators.

Next week’s must-watch

PSG vs Bayern is the one. It is Champions League, yes, but this weekend built the trailer perfectly. 

PSG rotated and still beat Angers 3-0. 

Bayern rotated, went 3-0 down, then still beat Mainz 4-3 because apparently normal football rules do not apply to them. 

Luis Enrique vs Vincent Kompany. 

PSG’s control vs Bayern’s chaos. 

If Bayern start slowly again, PSG will punish them. If PSG blink late, Bayern will rob them in broad daylight.

Be honest — who do you trust more right now: PSG with control, or Bayern with madness?