Villarreal dampens Barcelona's title celebrations. Mbappé scores again for Madrid

MADRID (AP) — Villarreal dampened Barcelona's title celebrations by handing the Catalan club its first defeat of 2025 in the Spanish league on Sunday.

Barcelona, which clinched its 28th league title midweek, presented the trophy to its fans in the team's final home match of the season at Montjuic stadium. Players were announced one by one after the game, which Villarreal won 3-2, before lifting the trophy.

Barcelona's Spanish Super Cup and Copa del Rey trophies also were displayed at Montjuic, with players dancing around the silverware during the celebrations.

“We can be proud of this team for winning these titles and for how it did it,” Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen said. “We had a great season in all levels.”

Before the match, Villarreal players did a guard of honor for the new league champions, with its players lining up to congratulate Barcelona as the team entered the field.

Real Madrid won 2-0 at nine-man Sevilla, with Kylian Mbappé extending his league-leading tally to 29 goals with one round to go. Jude Bellingham also scored. Madrid reached 81 points, four fewer than Barcelona.

Villarreal's victory secured its return to the Champions League for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2022.

It will join Barcelona, Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao in Europe's top club competition next season. Spain will have five clubs in the Champions League next season.

Real Betis clinched one of the Europa League spots. Celta Vigo, Rayo Vallecano and Osasuna will be chasing the final Europa League place and the Conference League spot.

Leganes, owned by former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, and Espanyol will try to avoid the last relegation spot in the final round when Leganes is at last-placed Valladolid and Espanyol faces relegated Las Palmas.

Barcelona, Madrid, Atletico and Athletic will play in next year’s lucrative Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.

All 10 games were played at the same time on Sunday.

Barcelona hadn't lost in the league since a 2-1 defeat against Atletico on Dec. 21, with 15 wins and two draws since then. Villarreal's win was its fifth straight victory in the league.

Ayoze Pérez put the visitors ahead after a breakaway four minutes into the match. The hosts equalized when Lamine Yamal scored with yet another beautiful goal in the teenager’s outstanding season, curling in a left-footed shot from outside the area.

Fermín López put Barcelona ahead in first-half stoppage time, but Santiago Comesaña scored for Villarreal in the 50th and Tajon Buchanan netted the winner in the 80th.

It was likely the last match Barcelona played at Montjuic stadium as the club plans to return to the Camp Nou Stadium next season even though renovation work at the venue is not expected to be fully completed until mid-2026.

Mbappé strengthened his chances of finishing as the league's top scorer this season with a goal from a low shot from outside the area in the 75th.

Mbappé now has 29 league goals. Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski (25 goals) is his nearest rival.

Sevilla’s Loic Bade was sent off in the 12th for a foul on Mbappé to stop a breakaway. Then Isaac Romero was shown a red card for a hard foul on Aurélien Tchouaméni.

It was the second-to-last match for Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti before he becomes Brazil coach. Xabi Alonso is widely expected to be Madrid's next coach.

Sevilla, sitting in 16th place, had only one win in its last 10 games.

Leganes kept its survival hopes alive by winning 1-0 at Las Palmas with a sixth-minute goal by Dani Raba.

It is two points behind the first team outside the relegation zone, Espanyol, which remained in danger after a 2-0 loss at Osasuna for its fifth straight defeat.

Alaves escaped the drop by winning 1-0 at Valladolid, while Getafe did the same by beating Mallorca 2-1 to end a six-game losing run.

Second-to-last Las Palmas and bottom side Valladolid had already been relegated.

Celta Vigo lost 2-1 at home to Rayo Vallecano but holds the final Europa League spot in seventh place. It is one point ahead of both eighth-placed Rayo — in the Conference League position — and ninth-placed Osasuna.

Rayo will host Mallorca in the final round, while Osasuna visits Alaves and Celta is at Getafe.

The top two teams in the league and the Copa del Rey finalists are awarded places in the Spanish Super Cup. Since this season’s final was between Barcelona and Madrid, two other spots were made available through the league.

Third-placed Atletico guaranteed its spot with a 4-1 win over Betis with Julián Álvarez scoring twice, including with a superb curling free kick in the first half. Fourth-placed Athletic Bilbao won 1-0 at Valencia with a goal by Álex Berenguer.

Real Sociedad honored coach Imanol Alguacil in its final home match, a 3-2 win against Girona.

Alguacil will step down this summer after a mostly successful six-and-a-half-year stint in charge of the Basque Country club.

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Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe reacts during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Sevilla and Real Madrid at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Barcelona's team members celebrate winning the La Liga after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Raphinha, centre, celebrates with teammates as whey won the La Liga after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Bottom from left: Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha celebrate with teammates as they won the La Liga after the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Real Madrid's head coach Carlo Ancelotti waits for the start of a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Sevilla and Real Madrid at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Sevilla's Lucien Agoume, left, in action against Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Sevilla and Real Madrid at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villarreal at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, May 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez have invited celebrity friends like fellow space traveler Katy Perry, Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger and Ivanka Trump for their Venice nuptials later this month, but the couple hopes to put a spotlight on Venice’s traditions during the celebrations.

They are sourcing some 80% of their wedding provisions from Venetian vendors, according to people close to the couple, as a way to share their appreciation for the romantic lagoon city. The wedding will take place over three days in late June, with events for the some 200 invited guests kept private.

Two historic Venetian companies will add artisanal touches to the celebration: Rosa Salva, the city’s oldest pastry maker that has been crafting donut-shaped fishermen’s biscuits since 1876, and Laguna B, a design studio known for its distinctive handblown Murano glass prized by fashion and design clients.

Antonio Rosa Salva, the 6th generation in his family to run the business, said the wedding order of a selection of surprises for goody bags was important recognition of his family’s long tradition of baking Venetian specialties dating back nearly 150 years.

They include the bussola buttery biscuit that was long a fisherman’s staple, and small zaletti cookies, made from the Veneto region’s corn meal, flavored with raisins and lemon zest.

“We try to maintain the old recipes,’’ said Rosa Salva, whose family business includes a catering service and four locations in Venice’s historic center and one on the mainland. “We do everything with love. It’s a pleasure and a privilege.’’

Rosa Salva, whose business regularly caters large events for 1,000 or more people in Venice, is perplexed by posters that have gone up around the historic center protesting the use of the city as a venue for the Bezos-Sanchez wedding.

“Events like this bring quality tourism to Venice,’’ he said. “I don’t see how an event with 200 people can create disruptions. It’s responsible tourism. It’s prestigious that a couple like this, who can go anywhere in the world, are getting married in the city.”

Laguna B was founded by Marie Brandolini, who became known as the glass countess, in 1994, and the company is now being guided by her son, Marcantonio Brandolini, from the family’s palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal.

The younger Brandolini said his vision is to restore the Venetian tradition of running creative enterprises out of Venice’s grand palazzi, which historically dedicated the ground floor to work spaces for the merchant nobility. His is a good example. The company employs 14 people under 30 out of offices in the courtyard and a boutique in an adjacent alleyway, in a sector, he underlined, “not related to tourism.’’

His upstairs neighbors are Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller — close friends of Bezos and Sanchez, but he doesn’t think that is why the wedding planner picked his company, which is well known among a small network of collectors.

Laguna B won’t disclose what its master glassblowers on Murano have created for the wedding, but the company is known for distinctive glassware that at times feature an undulating lip – no two alike.

“I hope they like what we did for them,’’ Brandolini said. “For us, it’s a great opportunity, it gives extra support for our growth.’’

While the business thrives on such important orders, Brandolini said he is equally gratified by young, discerning customers who seek out the shop because they admire Laguna B's commitment to community building, reviving Venice’s artisanal heritage and projects to help protect the fragile lagoon. They might buy just a single drinking glass.

His is a message of inclusivity, which he also applies to the Bezos-Sanchez choice of wedding venue. “The world is for everybody. Whoever wants to do something, should be able to do it, following the law,” he said.

Unsurprisingly in a city whose future is fiercely debated at every turn, the wedding has attracted the attention of protesters, who on Thursday hung a banner on St. Mark’s bell tower with Bezos' name crossed out. They cite the risk of disruptions in a city so overrun with mass tourism that officials are for a second year requiring day-trippers to pay a tax to enter on key summer days.

City officials have pledged that services will function normally during the wedding, and issued a denial in late March to reports that the wedding organizers had booked half the city’s water taxis and blocked out rooms at luxury hotels.

“We are very proud,’’ Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told The Associated Press this week in St. Mark’s Square, saying he hoped he would get the chance to meet Bezos. “I don’t know if I will have time, or if he will, to meet and shake hands, but it’s an honor that they chose Venice. Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage.’’

Andrea Rosa Salva pastry shop owner poses outside his shop in Venice, Italy, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Pastry chef Elias prepares traditionals Zaletti biscuits at the Andrea Rosa Salva pastry kitchen, in Venice, Italy, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Art glasses are displayed in a shop window of Laguna B glassmaker in Venice, Italy, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

St. Mark's Square, in Venice, Italy, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Art glasses are displayed at the Laguna B glassmaker headquarter courtyard, in Venice, Italy, Thursday, June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)