Real Madrid have missed out on the La Liga title despite beating Deportivo La Coruna 2-0 in their final match of the season this afternoon.
Los Blancos went into the closing weekend with their fate out of their own hands, and Barcelona's 3-0 victory over Granada meant that Cristiano Ronaldo's first-half brace at the Riazor was in vain.
© AFP
It didn't take long for Madrid to get into their stride, and they set about keeping their end of the bargain with just seven minutes on the clock when Ronaldo swept home at the back post after Karim Benzema's mis-hit shot had fallen into his path.
It was the Portuguese striker's 50th goal of the season in all competitions - the sixth consecutive campaign in which he has reached a half-century of goals.
The visitors almost added a second with less than 15 minutes gone when Sergio Ramos was allowed a clear run at the ball from a corner, but he just couldn't connect with the ball when he would have had a golden chance.
Madrid did double their advantage midway through the half, though, and it was a second for Ronaldo as he latched on to another corner and saw his header deflect in for his 35th league goal of the season.
By that point news had filtered through that Barcelona had taken the lead against Granada, but that didn't stop Madrid from pushing for more and Ronaldo was inches away from a 22-minute hat-trick when he beat the offside trap and exquisitely controlled a lofted pass over the top before flicking a finish past the keeper, only to see it come back off the inside of the post.
Ronaldo turned provider moments later when he played a one-two with Benzema, but the French striker saw his curling effort tipped wide by a full-stretch Stipe Pletikosa after collecting the return pass.
It was Ronaldo who was the most dangerous player on the park, though, and his one-man mission to hunt down Barcelona's Luis Suarez in the race for the Pichichi came close once again with just over 10 minutes of the half remaining when his effort clipped the top of the crossbar with the keeper beaten.
Deportivo finally produced their first notable attacking moment of the contest shortly afterwards when Faycal Fajr cut inside from the left flank and flashed a low curling effort narrowly past the far post from a difficult angle.
There was one final chance for the visitors in the first half when Ronaldo had two bites at the cherry from long range, with the second seeing the ball deflect into the area. Casemiro was fastest to react and managed to beat the keeper to the ball, but he lifted his finish over the top.
With Barcelona also leading by two goals at the interval and Suarez still four ahead of Ronaldo in the scoring charts, Zinedine Zidane took the decision to withdraw Ronaldo at half time, replacing him with James Rodriguez.
James drew a routine stop from Pletikosa five minutes after the restart, but Madrid's threat was much less pronounced without Ronaldo and it was Deportivo who looked most like scoring for much of the second half.
Keylor Navas was finally called into action in the 54th minute when he got down smartly to deny Lucas Perez, before Sidnei and Alex Bergantinos both sent efforts off target from outside the area.
The hosts' best chance of the game arrived with a little under 20 minutes remaining when Rober was left unmarked from a corner, but his header was straight at Navas, who made the save.
Madrid did start to push for a third goal in the closing stages, and after Isco had nodded one narrowly wide Pletikosa was needed to twice cut out low Marcelo crosses after the Brazilian full-back had made it to the byline.
James then curled another late strike narrowly wide as Madrid looked to finish with a flourish, but they were forced to settle for a 2-0 win that sees them finish the season one point behind champions Barcelona.
Real will now turn their attentions to the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid in a fortnight's time.
Barney Corkhill
