Atletico Madrid braced for bittersweet title surrender as Barcelona visit aiming to reclaim Liga crown

Barcelona can wrap up the Primera Liga title with victory at Atletico Madrid, but Ian Hawkey explains why the hosts will be going all out to stop them.

Fernando Torres insists anything less than full commitment from Atletico against Barcelona is "absurd." Javier Soriano / AFP

The deposing of the Spanish champions can be a civilised business in a set of very particular circumstances.

On the final match day of last season, the players of Atletico Madrid, gaining the point that confirmed the club’s first title for 18 years, were applauded from the field at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. Atletico’s 1-1 draw there had been sufficient to clinch first place.

The congratulations were striking because Barcelona finished second. Had they held their lead, in a match they were winning 1-0, Barca would have been champions, and they had been the title-holders until the final whistle.

But if supporters felt frustrated at the deposing, they quickly and eagerly acknowledged Atletico’s mould-breaking efforts to take the summit of a league traditionally dominated by two other clubs.

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One other crucial factor was the idea that a major rival to Real Madrid had sneaked off with the trophy, which provided sufficient compensation for Barcelonistas after they had lost their own grip on it.

By the end of Sunday evening, Barcelona may well be champions of Spain again and, if they gain the three points they need on the penultimate match day of the season to make it impossible for Real Madrid — four points behind Barca in second place — to catch them, the reaction from Atletico supporters will be instructive.

Barcelona chase those three points at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium, where the home supporters have a motivation to share any joy as, again, one collateral effect of a Barca triumph will be that Spain’s most decorated club, their chief city antagonists, Real, go a fourth year running without winning the major domestic trophy.

But it is more complicated than that for Atletico, whose defence of the league title faded weeks ago and whose secondary target in the season was to consolidate their membership of the European elite, which means being on the starting grid for the 2015/16 Uefa Champions League.

To ensure being in the group phase in September, Atletico must finish third — fourth place means the possible jeopardy of an August play-off — and they sit four points above Valencia, who are still alive in the race for third.

“All the speculation that there’s any possibility other than us going out to win against Barcelona is absurd,” Atletico striker Fernando Torres said this week.

“We always go out to win and we need to for that third place.”

Torres, who returned in January to the club where he grew up, after seven-and-a-half years in England and Italy, has a good chance of starting on Sunday.

He has been frequently used off the bench since his emotional reuniting with the club he supports, but he has been sharp in the past two weeks.

He also has a particular history, albeit compiled over his first, younger spell at Atletico, of scoring decisive goals against Barcelona.

He netted twice in a single game on two of the three occasions in the early 2000s that he played in winning Atletico teams against Barca.

He also scored against Barca while playing for Chelsea, a goal that put the London club through to a Champions League final in 2012.

“Those were different times,” Torres said, “and very different circumstances.”

As was a 6-0 defeat Barcelona inflicted on Atletico in the 2006/07 season, a game that helped convince Torres he needed to move elsewhere to fulfil his ambitions. He joined Liverpool later that summer.

The Atletico he is with now have grown hugely in status.

“A club who fights for big titles is a stable club,” Torres said by way of comparison, “and we have got to continue to do that.”

Atletico will miss the label of “reigning Liga champions”, but they intend to be in contention for the prize, from here on, more than once every 18 years.

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