The fighting spirit Atletico Madrid have shown all season meant coach Diego Simeone never doubted they would come from behind to draw 1-1 against Barcelona and claim a first La Liga title for 18 years, even if the rest of the footballing world has been left stunned.
Barca needed to beat Atletico in a
final-day showdown to snatch the title away and Alexis Sanchez gave the
hosts hope when he rifled home from an acute angle after 33 minutes at a
packed Nou Camp.
But four minutes after the break Diego Godin powered in a header from
a corner and Atletico defended robustly to earn the draw they needed
and claim their first championship since 1995-96.
"I never thought for a moment
that the team would not be able to do it. They always have a response,
the bigger the challenge is, the more determined they are to achieve it.
From the first moment I walked into the dressing room here I noticed
that," Simeone told a news conference.
Simeone was an Atletico player
when they last won the championship and he has passed on his
determination to the team as a coach.
"The work and effort of this team is the key and nobody makes any compromises. The team understands this," he said.
"Today will be one of the most
important days in the history of the club. To become champions against
Barcelona is a great feeling."
Atletico lost Diego Costa
and Arda Turan to injury early in the match and went a goal down but
still went on to get the point they needed against Barcelona. It is not
hyperbole to say that Atletico's title triumph is one of the biggest
achievements in the history of football. They have a wage bill that is
less than QPR's and were 66/1 to win the title at the start of the
season – the same price offered on Aberdeen or Motherwell winning the
Scottish Premiership. They did it with a small squad, who also managed
to somehow get to the Champions League final too. Barcelona (Neymar) and Real Madrid
(Gareth Bale) both spent more on one player in the summer than
Atletico's entire squad cost. This is a genuine feel good story in a
new, money-driven footballing world.
Atletico Madrid travel to Lisbon
for the Champions League final with an injury depleted squad that must
be both physically and mentally exhausted. However, only a fool would
write them off causing another big upset given all they've achieved this
season. They will likely lose arguably their two key players in the
summer to Chelsea – the on-loan Thibaut Courtois
and top scorer Diego Costa - and top clubs may even court their manager
too, so some sort of regression seems inevitable. But even so, nothing
can take away the scale of this achievement. This is the sort of team
that Atletico fans will be telling their grandchildren about in 50
years' time.
WHAT THE MEDIA ARE SAYING
Sid Lowe (The Observer): Atlético
Madrid have done it. A year after they went to the Santiago Bernabéu
and took the Copa del Rey from Real Madrid, they came here and took the
league title from FC Barcelona.
It is their first in 18 years. Next they travel to Lisbon to play their
first European Cup final for 40 years. What Diego Simeone and his side
have achieved is barely believable. Barcelona's supporters recognised
the magnitude of what they had witnessed: when the final whistle went
here, they immediately broke into applause. Simeone's side have taken on
the duopoly and defeated it. This is a monumental achievement: not only
has it been 10 years since someone else won the title, the nearest
anyone has been over the last five years was 24, 39, 25, 28 and 17
points. Atlético finished this season three points ahead.
Rory Smith (The Times): Atletico Madrid are champions of Spain,
for the first time since 1996. That does not come close to capturing
quite what an achievement this is, though, for their coach, Diego
Simeone, for their players, a mixture of cast-offs and has-beens and
late bloomers. This is a club that exists in a state of almost perpetual
chaos, that toils in the shadow of Spain’s big two, that has a fifth of
their financial clout. They are precisely the sort of club, in other
words, who are not supposed to win titles in the harsh capitalist
reality of modern football. And yet, thanks to a mixture of courage,
talent, nous, guile and a bloody-minded refusal to give up, here they
are, on top of a table that includes Barcelona and Real Madrid, and with
a Champions League final to look forward to next week. It may not be
the ultimate underdog story, but it’s roughly as close as you’re going
to get.
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