Spain

Lionel Messi scored a second half brace with assists from Yaya Toure as Barcelona crushed Valladolid 4-0 to win the championship and relegate the visitors. Messi ties Ronaldo's modern-day club record for goals in a Liga campaign (34) and goals overall in a season (47). Barcelona finishes the 38-game season with 31 wins, six draws, and a single loss.

Real Madrid needed Barcelona to drop points to have a shot at the championship. Once it became clear that wasn't in the cards, Real settled for a 1-1 draw at Malaga that assured the hosts' survival. Duda opened the scoring for Malaga after accepting a brilliant back-heel pass from Felipe Caicedo. Rafael v. d. Vaart replied on a pinball play just after the break. Duda was sent off in stoppage time for attacking two Madrid players with his purse.

At the bottom, Racing Santander also survived by beating Gijon. Joining Valladolid in next year's Segunda are Tenerife (1-0 stoppage-time losers in Valencia) and Xerez (who drew 1-1 away to Osasuna).

The takeaway from this season was the dominance of the big two clubs. Barcelona finished on 99 points and Real Madrid on 96. Third place was Valencia on 71. Sevilla enters the Champions' League playoff with 63. I'm not sure how you can be the champion of anything when you finish 36 points back of first.

More broadly, unless the Spanish league wants to turn into the Scottish Premier League on Steroids, something has to be done about competitive balance. The preferred route is a salary cap, but we'll be waiting awhile for that I fear.  
 

Italy

Diego Milito's 57th minute strike gave Inter Milan a 1-0 win at relegated Siena, clinching Inter's 18th Italian Championship in the process. It's Inter's fourth consecutive crown on the field, and fifth overall including the courtroom. Siena battled all the way. I haven't seen many Siena matches this season but on this day the Tuscans looked much better than their record indicates.

Inter have already won the Italian Cup, and face Bayern Muenchen on Saturday for the Champions' League title.

Roma needed Inter to slip up to have a chance at the championship, the "Scudetto". While that didn't happen, Roma eased past Chievo 2-0 in Verona on first half goals from Mirko Vucinic and Daniele De Rossi.

Germany—Late Saturday

Bayern Muenchen crushed Werder Bremen 4-0 to win the German Cup. Arjen Robben put Bayern 1-0 ahead at halftime, while Ivica Olic, Franck Ribery, and Bastian Schweinsteiger each found the net after the break. German international and club captain Torsten Frings was sent off for Bremen on 77 minutes with the side 3-0 down.

Bayern has now completed the league and cup double, and will search for a famous treble themselves Saturday in Madrid against Inter.