Barcelona congratulated Real Madrid for winning the 2023/24 La Liga title after their 4-2 defeat at Girona ended their hopes of defending the championship.

Los Blancos needed just one victory in their final four matches to secure the trophy following their 3-0 triumph against Cadiz. However, they were handed it prematurely thanks to La Blaugrana’s misfortune at Municipal de Montilivi.

Barca were 2-1 up at the break against Girona after strikes from Andreas Christensen and Robert Lewandowski, with the hosts responding through Artem Dovbyk.

However, Portu scored twice either side of Miguel Gutierrez’s effort to help Michel’s side emerge 4-2 winners and move into second place in the table.

In accordance with tradition, Barca posted a congratulatory message to Carlo Ancelotti and his squad on social media which reads: “Congratulations to Real Madrid for winning the league title.”

At his post-match press conference, manager Xavi extended his congratulations to rivals Madrid as they were declared champions later in the evening, saying (via Diario AS): “They are to be congratulated. They are the ones who have done the most.”

Congratulations to Real Madrid for winning the league title.

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 4, 2024

On what went wrong, Xavi explained: “The truth is that, in a way, we have lost control of the party because of blatant mistakes that cannot happen at this level. We’ve talked a lot about these kinds of mistakes and it still happens.

“The game was under control; we had Girona in their own half for an hour and we gave them away in the last half hour. It’s the summary of the season. That’s how Madrid’s two games have been, Girona’s two. You have to change a lot to compete.

“I think we’ll learn and next season we’ll compete better. We will keep fighting. Next season we will have to correct things.”

Barcelona last won La Liga in the 2022/23 season, marking their 27th triumph in securing the honour.