After beating Cádiz at the Bernabéu today, Real Madrid are on the verge of clinching the 2023/24 Spanish league championship.
Real Madrid’s win over Cádiz today leaves Carlo Ancelotti’s men on the cusp of securing the 2023/24 LaLiga title. Brahim Díaz, Jude Bellingham and Joselu Mato scored second-half goals to give Madrid a 3-0 matchday-34 victory at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, whose home fans could be heard singing “champions, champions” after the final whistle.
What do Madrid need to clinch LaLiga title?
If second-placed Barcelona fail to beat Girona in a 12:30pm ET kick-off at Estadi Montilivi, Madrid will have an unassailable lead at the top of Spain’s top flight.
Should Barça keep their slim title aspirations alive with victory at Girona, Madrid will secure the league championship - without depending on the Blaugrana’s result at home to Real Sociedad the following day - if they avoid defeat away to Granada on Saturday 11 May.
How many LaLiga titles have Real Madrid won?
As things stand, Real Madrid have won LaLiga 35 times in their history. That’s more Spanish championships than any other club: Barça, with 27, are Los Blancos’ nearest challengers in the all-time list. Atlético Madrid are third, with 11 titles. Across Europe’s five major leagues - the Bundesliga, LaLiga, Ligue 1, the Premier League and Serie A - only Juventus have more domestic crowns. However, Madrid are poised to draw level with the Italians’ haul of 36.
And if, as seems all but certain, Madrid do equal Juve’s title tally, it will be the third time in the last five years that Los Vikingos have been crowned LaLiga champions. That would be the most titles that the Spanish capital club have managed in such a period of time since the days of the ‘Quinta del Buitre’ - a team, which, led by legendary former striker Emilio Butragueño, lifted five successive championships between 1985/86 and 1989/90.
Madrid becoming more consistent LaLiga winners under Pérez
Another Spanish title win for Real Madrid would offer further evidence of a shifting trend in Florentino Pérez’s presidency of the club. Until recent times, Pérez’s stewardship - which, across two spells, has lasted for 21 years - had not been characterised by regular success in LaLiga. In Pérez’s first 13 seasons in charge, indeed, Madrid managed just three league titles. Moreover, since Pérez was first elected as Bernabéu chief in summer 2000, arch rivals Barça have won 11 league titles to Los Blancos’ six.
However, although Madrid are yet to win back-to-back LaLiga titles under Pérez - something they have achieved in the Champions League, winning three straight European Cups between 2016 and 2018 - they have developed into far more consistent domestic performers. 2016/17′s LaLiga triumph under Zinédine Zidane marked the beginning of a sequence which, if Madrid are confirmed as 2023/24 champions, will have yielded four league trophies in eight seasons.
Can Madrid win LaLiga with a points record?
No, but they can get very close. After beating Cádiz, Madrid have 87 points, with four games to go. If Ancelotti’s men win each of their remaining games of the campaign, against Granada, Alavés, Villarreal and Real Betis, they will finish the top-flight campaign with 99 points - one shy of the record.
Madrid themselves were the first club to win 100 points in LaLiga, under José Mourinho in 2011/12. Barça then emulated that feat the following season.