If Atletico Madrid goes on and wins the La Liga title this season, they will have the luck to thank for the achievement. The Madrid side goes to Match Day 36 leading Real Madrid and Barcelona by two points and even they will be surprised that they are still at the top of the standings after events in the recent weeks.
When Atletico Madrid seemed to be struggling and getting deposed from the summit of the league standings was imminent, they survived. A key highlight of this would be the game against Elche, which came right after the loss to Athletic Club, and with Atletico struggling. In the Elche game, Atleti hoped to stop a shaky away run and all seemed to work well until Elche won a last-minute penalty that left Atletico players burying heads in their hands in disappointment. However, Elche skipper Fidel Chavez de la Torre missed it to throw Atletico a lifeline.
As if that was not a close shave enough, Barcelona, with a chance to go top of the standings, inexplicably suffered a 2-1 loss at home to Granada, who staged a great second-half comeback to stun the Catalans. Meanwhile, Real Madrid was held to a 0-0 draw with Real Betis, further ensuring Atletico kept some breathing space ahead of fellow title contenders.
All this while, fourth-placed Sevilla were rising in their quest to join the title race.
While they are still a decent side defensively, Atletico struggled a bit to keep clean sheets as competitors Barcelona and Real Madrid raced to catch up. They would, however, put in a defensive masterclass to nullify the Lionel Messi threat in their game against Barcelona in what could pass as the most crucial match in their title chase.
Upon drawing with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Sevilla did them a favor, in playing to a 2-2 draw, a result that will be very disappointing for Sevilla, having allowed Real back in twice. The second Real Madrid goal will particularly hurt Sevilla for years to come, as it not only threw them off the title race but conceding in the last minute of an extended added time should really be painful.
Moving on, experts are putting the money on Atletico Madrid to win the title and looking at the remaining three matches, for each of the top three teams, there can be little doubt that this will work out in Atletico’s favor.
Most of the top bookmakers previewed on SportyTrader will definitely carry these matches towards the La Liga finale and a good number of the sites come with interesting sign up bonuses.
Bet365 has a welcome bonus of up to $60, which should be appealing enough for a new user interested in the La Liga games, and 1XBet’s bonus of up to $130 ranks among the highest you can get, while Mega Pari, which is rated 9.5/10 among the top sites around, has a bonus of up to €100 bonus matched to the new user’s first deposit. Betsson on the other hand offers up to €125 bonus on the first and second deposits.
Atletico has had a great home run in La Liga this season and they play their next two league games at home. This in effect means if they win the two matches, and Barcelona and Real Madrid match the results, then they will go to the final game requiring a draw.
The first of the final three matches is a home game against Real Sociedad, who haven’t had a very good away run, then Osasuna follows, with an unimpressive recent run seeing Atletico tipped early favorites going to that game as well. It is important to note that this season, Atletico has 13 wins in their 17 home league matches and no team has performed better at home in the league than Diego Simeone’s team. Out of the 77 points, they’ve managed so far, Atletico Madrid has won 42 at home.
Their final match of the season should be a winnable game as well. They take on relegation-threatened Real Valladolid. By then, maybe they will have already wrapped up the title or Valladolid would have secured survival and there won’t be much to play for.
While Atletico Madrid has led the standings for the better part of the season through a lot of uncertainty and sinking hopes, the real pain if they win the title will be felt at the Santiago Bernabeu and Camp Nou as Real Madrid and Barcelona reflect on the misses in the season.
Real Madrid hasn’t lost to both Atletico and Barcelona this season and it will hurt if they fail to successfully defend their title. You may get here also the Top 50 Muslim footballers in Real Madrid, La Liga, and Barcelona. They close their season with away matches against Granada and Athletic Club, then at home to Villarreal in the last game.
On their part, Barcelona has an away game against Levante, then at home to Celta Vigo before finishing away to Eibar.
