Barcelona congratulate Real Madrid on winning La Liga title - and Los Blancos fans are loving it

Barcelona, on their social media pages at least, were magnanimous in defeat as they congratulated Real Madrid on winning their 34th La Liga title on Thursday night.

Zinedine Zidane's side secured their first league win since 2017 as they defeated Villarreal at Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, with Karim Benzema scoring both goals to ease Los Blancos to a 2-1 win.

Barca, meanwhile, suffered a shock home defeat to Osasuna to leave their 2019-20 league campaign in tatters, with Madrid having opened an unassailable seven-point lead at the top with one game remaining.

After last night's events, in what was sure to stoke the rivalry between both sets of supporters, the Blaugrana's Twitter account posted a message to congratulate Madrid for coming out on top.

Head coach Quique Setien, who has conceded that he is unsure whether he'll be in charge for the remainder of Barca's Champions League campaign, also gave credit to Madrid, although he did point out that he felt luck had been on their side.

He told reporters: "We have to give credit to Real Madrid as they've won 10 matches in a row and we haven't. We let points slip away, it's true that in many matches where we dropped points we deserved more, except for example the match against Atletico Madrid where I think the draw was a correct result.

"In other matches where we won by a very tight margin, I don't think we were lucky. I don't think we had the luck that our rival had, they were more efficient. I'm not trying to put forward any excuses or anything, but these are the facts."

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone, meanwhile, accepted that Real have been "the best" and that you can't argue with their record that has seen them win their last 10 games in a row in La Liga.

He said: "Without a doubt the champion is always the best. Of course, they've shown that over the last 10 matchdays. So I want to congratulate them. When you win 10 matches in a row, there's nothing more you can say."

Barca's social media response didn't go down quite so well with the club's fanbase, however, with many taking the opportunity to blast the Catalans for their abject title defence, while the opposite can be said for Madrid supporters, who revelled in their rivals' misery.