Atletico comeback puts them in the drivers’ seat in La Liga title race

There was plenty of drama in the penultimate round of games of the 2020/21 La Liga season. All three contenders – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid – played simultaneously on Sunday night and at times each of the three sides seemed determined to hand the La Liga title to their rivals.

Atletico have led the league for the majority of the year, but have faltered in recent weeks, losing to Athletic Club and Sevilla. The trophy was still in their hands if they won their last two games of the season but Sunday’s match against Osasuna was far from straightforward for Diego Simeone’s men.

Atletico dominated the game from the outset and did everything except score in the first half, with the ball almost unwilling to go into the back of the net. Los Rojiblancos hit the post twice through Suarez and Saul and had 26 shots on goal throughout the match. Atletico also had two goals ruled out for offside and to make matters worse, they went 1-0 down in the 75th minute in what was Osasuna’s first meaningful attack of the game.

The title seemed destined to slip through their fingers but Atletico produced a late rally in the final 10 minutes. The substitutes Renan Lodi and Joao Felix combined to pull the hosts level before Luis Suarez scored the winner two minutes from time to send them back to the top of the league in dramatic fashion.

Real also left it late against Athletic Club but eventually secured the victory 20 minutes from time through centre-back Nacho Fernandez. It was far from a pretty performance, but Los Blancos crucially got the job done and stayed in the race with one game to go.

Things weren’t as smooth sailing for Barcelona and Lionel Messi as they dropped out of the title race following a demoralizing 2-1 defeat to Celta Vigo. Messi opened the scoring in the first half to close the gap to the Madrid clubs but Celta equalised almost immediately through Santi Mina. Things went from bad to worse in the second half with centre-half Lenglet receiving his marching orders before Mina scoring the winner in the 89th minute to eliminate Barcelona from the title race. It’s been a disappointing end to the season for the Catalan club, who have won only one of their past five league games and next week’s match against Eibar could be the last match that Messi plays for the club.

And finally, as the dust settled, Atletico end up on 83 points and are only one victory away from winning their first La Liga title since 2013-14. Real find themselves two points behind and with a punchers chance to win back-to-back titles if they can edge past Unai Emery’s Villareal and if Atletico somehow fail to take all three points against Valladolid.

It is Atletico’s title to lose, but if the past few weeks are to go by, there are plenty of twists left in the tale before anyone can grab their hand on the trophy.