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The puzzle of the Europa League

Mestalla's team did not have a good beginning with Mauricio Pellegrino's project and, although the team reacted after is replacement with Ernesto Valverde, it did not manage to reach the finish line, even though it was all down to them in the end. Valverde will start a new project in the Athletic Club.

The opposite of Malaga. Despite not being present this time in the Champions League, the great work done in the continental tournament and the good average performance in the Liga means that Pellegrini leaves La Rosaleda deserving our recognition and affection. The worst thing for the Malaga team is that it will not be able to play at the Europa League due to a sanction imposed by UEFA's Financial Control Committee.

Real Betis will also return to the European championships after seven seasons out of them. Headed by Pepe Mel, with a spectacular Ruben Castro at the front and the great winter reinforcement Colombian Dorlan Pabon, Real Betis ended brilliantly its Liga tournament.

Paco Jemez's Rayo Vallecano, who, as Mel, will continue in his position, was another of the sensations of the year despite being very modest. His team played nicely and, even daringly. It could have ended playing the Europa League due to Malaga's sanction, but it is struggling to get the UEFA licence after problems regarding the insolvency proceedings in which it is immersed.

Malaga's and Rayo's administrative problems meant that Sevilla, which ended ninth, will play the European championship. The Club from Andalusia started the campaign with Jose Miguel Gonzalez, "Michel", and ended with Unai Emery, who did not manage to redirect the situation very well.

The feeling of having gone through a very modest season is also felt in the Athletic headed by Argentinian Marcelo Bielsa. After a tumultuous summer with Javi Martinez's exit to Bayern Munich and Fernando Llorente’s nearly zero-activity - he has finally committed to go to Juventus-, the team from Vizcaya was very different to the team that dazzled everyone a few months earlier.

Luis Garcia's Getafe was able to dream briefly about participating in the European championship, but the last stretch of the league put an end to its dream. Levante gave out 100%, participating in the Europa League and the Liga, but it was not able to repeat again the great performance of the previous season.

Espanyol, which was the protagonist of the first replacement in the benches of the Liga BBVA (13th round), when Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino left and Javier Aguirre arrived, went from being almost evicted to ending not very far from the European positions, a great achievement for the Mexican coach and his pupils.

Relegations

Lucas Alcaraz and Abel Resino, who came to the Granada and Celta benches to replace Juan Antonio Anquela and Paco Herrera respectively, became the saviours of their respective teams, although in the case of Celta, it had to wait to an exciting last round which pushed Deportivo – the only team that didn't depend on anyone else's results -, Mallorca and Zaragoza to relegation.

After this season, Real Zaragoza saw its shortest ever stay, four years, in the top football league competition since 1957.

Since then, the team from Aragon has been relegated five times, the last time in 2008/2009, and it has always only been in the second division for just one year before returning again to the top league, something that it will try to do again this time.

The winners of Liga BBVA

The top scorer was once again Lionel Messi, just like last season. With this title, the Argentinian has now been the top scorer for three years, reaching the records of Langara and Garate. His 46 goals meant he was once again the top scorer of the Spanish league for second consecutive year, something that did not happen since the 1986/87 and 87/88 seasons, when Hugo Sanchez was the top scorer for three consecutive seasons.

The least goaled goalkeeper was Courtois. The goalkeeper of Atletico de Madrid has therefore broken the winning streak of Victor Valdes, from Barcelona, who had been the best for four consecutive seasons. The last goalkeeper of Atletico de Madrid to achieve that was Molina in the 95/96 campaign.

Negredo ended the season with 24 goals as the top Spanish scorer, ahead of Roberto Soldado, with one less.

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