Atletico Madrid's La Liga title chances are dead and February isn't even over
Atletico Madrid won La Liga three years ago and Copa del Rey the year before. Since then, they played in a couple Champions League finals, including last season's classic. Even better, they didn't have to sell any of their better players last summer, so they entered this season with every expectation to battle Real Madrid and Barcelona for the La Liga title.
Instead, February isn't yet over and Atletico Madrid's chances of becoming the champions of Spain are done.
Atletico Madrid's 2-1 loss to Barcelona on Sunday killed what was left of their chances for the title. They now sit nine points back of the Catalans and, while that isn't a completely insurmountable gap, they're seven back of a Real Madrid side that have two matches in hand. Oh, and Sevilla are also there even with the Merengues so Atleti would have to pass up three times for the title.
Diego Simeone is brilliant, and maybe the best manager in the world, but even he can't work that kind of magic. Atleti are done.
But while we're ready to bury Atletico Madrid, it's worth remembering that we're only talking about La Liga. Atleti are playing better of late, as evidenced by Barcelona needing a moment of Lionel Messi brilliance to win on Sunday, and they still have the Champions League. You know, just the competition that Atletico Madrid have been best at in recent years.
There may not be a better knockout tournament manager than Simeone. His team's style lends itself to two-legged ties and he does as good a job as anyone in the world as concocting gameplans that befuddle his opponents. They're already two goals up after the first leg of their round of 16 tie, and that's with the home leg still to play.
Atletico Madrid's season is not yet a failure. The Champions League may still deliver them the biggest title in club soccer, but any La Liga hopes they had are now dead. It's still just February, but even Simeone can't dig them out of the this hole, so it's all eyes on Europe now.
