The mattress men won the Spanish League title, yesterday, on
a wage budget of £52 million, one fifth of their opponents Barcelona, from whom
they stole a vital point to secure La Liga. Outrageously, under 500 Atletico supporters were given tickets for
this game at the Nou Camp. The fairy tale victory spoke loudly for the “smaller
club” in Spain, where Barcelona and Real Madrid have dominated the championship
for years on huge budgets. So Diego Simeone, manager of the “other” Madrid club,
has performed a miracle in winning the Europa League and fifth place in his
first season, third place and the Copa del Rei win over Real in his second season
and now this, with a Champions League final to come. Tony Pulis said, when taking
on Crystal Palace recently, that football is very simple; all we have to do is
make sure we are hard to score against, get organised, take no risks, be
disciplined and then counter attack! This is what Simeone did when he arrived at Atletico, salvaging the club at the relegation end of the league and having just lost in the cup to third division Albacete.
In last week's La Liga game, Atletico nearly beat Malaga and that would have made the title theirs, so going to the Nou Camp would have been a formality. However, a brilliant save by Malaga’s keeper, Caballero, in the 94th minute kept the score at 1-1, so a visit to Barcelona, needing points, was more daunting. Atletico’s alternative nickname, “El Pupas”, the cursed ones, would have stuck hard, had this been the case. But all’s well that ends well; the mattress men's next and final venue is Lisbon for the European Champions’ League Final versus some other club from Madrid.
In last week's La Liga game, Atletico nearly beat Malaga and that would have made the title theirs, so going to the Nou Camp would have been a formality. However, a brilliant save by Malaga’s keeper, Caballero, in the 94th minute kept the score at 1-1, so a visit to Barcelona, needing points, was more daunting. Atletico’s alternative nickname, “El Pupas”, the cursed ones, would have stuck hard, had this been the case. But all’s well that ends well; the mattress men's next and final venue is Lisbon for the European Champions’ League Final versus some other club from Madrid.
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