Atlético Madrid finally win La Liga Title

EFE

 

Back on October 11 2020, I predicted the following for the 2020/2021 season:

"In Spain, either Real Madrid or Barcelona will win the title. And like every year, Diego Simeone’s Atlético will finish third."

I have never been more happy to be proven wrong. Atlético Madrid didn't finish third but instead have won the 2020/21 La Liga title after a 7 year wait.

Shortly after I wrote the above words, Atlético Madrid went on an incredible run in La Liga including finally winning a league game against Barcelona 1-0 on the 18th attempt. Backed by the goals and leadership of Luis Suárez, Atlético Madrid were running away with the title and were unbeaten until they ran into their old foe Real Madrid on Dec 12, 2020. If Atlético won that game, it would have surely knocked Madrid out of the title race. But like always, Atlético came up short and lost 2-0 and those old doubts were whispered.

After that Real Madrid game, Atlético got things on track and won 8 league games in a row. The only hiccup was a surprise Copa del Rey exit at the hands of UD Cornella on Jan 6, 2021. Then came a pivotal week in February where Atlético appeared to be throwing it away after two games in succession against Levante over 3 days. A 1-1 away draw to Levante was followed by a 2-0 home defeat. The doubts were fully back. Atlético again had a chance to step up and banish any signs of weakness against Real Madrid at home on Sunday, March 7. Atlético led 1-0 at half-time via an early goal through Luis Suárez (who else) but couldn’t close out the game as always against their rivals. Madrid equalized in the 88th minute through Karim Benzema (who else) and a league race was on.

At one point in the season, Atlético were 13 points ahead of Real Madrid but eventually saw that gap diminish and Real Madrid even went briefly on top of the league around March-April 2021. Atlético kept losing games and surprisingly at one point in April, Barcelona could have gone top of the league. As luck would have it, Barcelona and Real Madrid kept squandering their chances to take control of the league. Even Sevilla had an outside of the title as they were 3 points behind Atlético in 4th place in early April. Ultimately, the title went down to the last day of the season and Atlético finished top of the Spanish league after winning their final 3 games of the season in dramatic fashion by the same margin of 2-1. The drama was heightened especially since Atlético fell behind 1-0 in the last 2 games and they needed their main man Luis Suárez to score the winning goals in back-to-back league games.

These were the other predictions I made back on Oct 2020:

"In the German League, it is Bayern Munich who always take the title, no matter how the season goes. Bayern have won the title for the last 8 years and it doesn’t appear that anyone else can stop them. In Italy, Juventus look likely to win the league title like they have won for the past 9 seasons. In France, PSG will win the title."

Indeed in Germany, Bayern Munich easily won their 9th straight title but in Italy, Inter Milan won the title halting Juventus’ streak. In France, PSG are one point behind Lille and the title race will be decided on the final day of the French season on Sunday, May 23, 2021.

[Update, May 23, 2021]

In France, Lille won the league title by one point over PSG.

Overall, I got 3 out of 4 predictions wrong and I am happy about that. Atlético Madrid, Inter Milan and Lille did remarkably well to upset the big teams.