Soccer-Skillarreal shock Barcelona to dampen title celebrations

(Reuters) -villarreal fought back 3-2 from Barcelona on Sunday and the Laliga champions handed over their first defeat since the end of December. After securing the title after Thursday’s 2-0 win at the Espanyol city matches, they gave an unexplained lead about the competition with two games left to play. “I think Villarreal played a good game … but what’s important is that we are champions,” Barca’s firm Lopez, who scored their second goal to make it 2-1 at the end of the first half, told Dazn before joining his teammates in the trophy lift. “I’m glad I scored a goal, although it didn’t help us to achieve another victory we really wanted. Most importantly, however, we won the league, and that’s it, we deserve it and let us keep the celebration going. ‘ Former Newcastle and Leicester forward Ayoze Perez opened the standings for the visitors and found the net in the fourth minute of a counter-attack. Still, Barca’s Lamine Yamal leveled a curly strike in the 38th minute and Lopez gave them the lead with a shot of the edge of the box in the first half of the downtime. However, Santi Comesana leveled five minutes after the break and the Canadian Tajon Buchanan fired the winner in the 80th minute of a Gerard Moreno cross, a result that Villarreal secured a place in the Champions League next season. Prior to the last weekend of the campaign, the champions Barca at 85 points, four leading second-placed Real Madrid, with Atletico in third place at 73 points. Athletic Bilbao, at 70 points, and Villarreal, at 67, complete the top five of Laliga, which will represent Spain in next season’s Champions League. (Reporting by Fernando Kallasiting by Toby Davis)