Atletico Madrid News Archives

Real Madrid celebrated their 31st Liga in style by thumping rivals Barcelona 4-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu. This will have to go down as the most one-sided clasico since Ronaldinho destroyed Madrid’s defence in November 2005. How times have changed since then. Ronaldinho is only in the news now for his off the field antics, while Madrid have formed a solid compact unit that has won La Liga at a canter.

The Barcelona players suffered the shame of having to applaud their rivals onto the pitch, but by the end of the night this humiliation was nothing compared to what they experienced over 90 minutes. from the beginning Diarra, Sneijder and Gago ruled the midfield and even Leo Messi was kept completely out of the game as Barça’s midfield players struggled to connect with the forwards.

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Congratulations to Real Madrid for winning their 31st Spanish league title. It’s been a funny old season in Spain so perhaps it was appropriate that Madrid should come from behind and score twice in the last five minutes when they were down to ten men to win 1-2 at Osasuna. Villarreal are looking good for second place after a 2-0 victory over Getafe, while Barcelona who seem to be in a serious crisis surprised everyone by walloping Valencia 6-0. Some might be more surprised by the fact that Thierry Henry played well and scored twice!

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Real Madrid need just two points from their remaining four matches to seal their 31st La Liga title after comfortably beating Athletic Bilbao 3-0 at the Bernabeu on Sunday evening. Barcelona are in big danger of losing out on second place to Villarreal. The Catalans obviously had their minds on Tuesday’s return match with Manchester United and were easily beaten by Deportivo, while Villarreal won at Betis to move four points above Barça. At the bottom of the table Levante became the first team to be mathematically relegated after losing to Recreativo.

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If there was any doubt that Real Madrid are going to win their 31st La Liga title, it was dispelled after their 0-2 victory over Racing Santander. With a ten point advantage over closest rivals Villarreal, Madrid now need just five points from their remaining five games and they will now be hoping to clinch the title before the home game against arch enemies Barcelona on May 7 which will mean the Catalans will face the embarrassment of having to applaud their rivals onto the pitch.

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Real Madrid moved another step closer to their 31st La Liga title with an uninspiring 1-0 victory over relegation bound Murcia. Barcelona have more or less said adios to their title hopes after only drawing at Recreativo, but the big news this week is the almost certain sale of Ronaldinho to AC Milan. The Brazilian will reportedly be on a meagre €150,000 a week for his new club. Villarreal slipped back down to third place after losing 1-0 at Almeria.

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The top three all failed to win this week but Real Madrid who played badly will be the happiest with their 1-1 draw at Mallorca which leaves them seven points clear with seven games to go. Barcelona played better than in recent weeks but will be most disappointed with their 0-0 draw at home to Getafe, especially after hitting the post three times. Villarreal stay in second place on head-to-head goal difference despite losing 2-0 at Sevilla.

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After weeks of inconsistency Real Madrid found their form again to defeat Sevilla this weekend and take a big step towards their 31st La Liga title. Barcelona, however, threw away a two-goal lead at Betis which sees them slip back to seven points behind Madrid and allowed Villarreal to move above them into second place after a fine 3-0 victory over Atletico Madrid.

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Anyone who thought La Liga was over has been proved wrong again. Every week it gets more and more crazy as Real Madrid and Barcelona try to outdo each other to see who can waste most chances. This week Barça did not play well but 17-year-old Bojan Krkic scored twice as they beat Valladolid 4-1, while Madrid played well going forward but paid the price for defensive mistakes, losing 2-3 at home to Ronald Koeman’s Valencia.

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When last season the Spanish title race was pulled down to the wire with three teams in contention for the trophy going into the ultimate round of matches, there was a whisper of hope rippling across the nation and especially among the Spanish football commentators that the duopoly could be broken at last.

Real Madrid might have won their 30th La Liga trophy in history and FC Barcelona might have finished second level on points but Sevilla FC had finished third 5 points off the pace and Valencia CF had been in the title chase until the last weeks of the season in what had been one of the most exciting Spanish championship campaign in years.

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Uefa’s Control and Disciplinary Committee has imposed a fine of £2,520 on Lyon for “incidents of an unsporting nature”.

This comes after an incident at the Stade Gerland during the first leg of the Lyon-Manchester United Champions League 2nd round last month where a fan behind the Lyon goal targeted Cristiano Ronaldo with a laser pen. However, Uefa made it a point to clarify that “there was no suggestion Ronaldo’s health could have been affected by this incident” - how thoughtful of them.

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It seems as if neither of Spain’s big two really want to win La Liga this season. Real Madrid’s defeat at Deportivo was their eighth defeat in 2008 and thet have now lost four of their last seven league games. Barcelona have consistantly blown their chances of capitalizing on their rivals mistakes: this weekend they twice surrendered the lead and had to settle for a 2-2 draw at Almeria which leaves them seven points behind Madrid with ten games remaining.

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It really is a crazy time in La Liga. At the end of January Real Madrid had a nine point advantage over rivals Barcelona, two weeks ago that difference was reduced to two points, but Barça’s successive defeats against Atletico Madrid and Villarreal have given Real Madrid the chance to move eight points clear with only eleven games to go. Surely Madrid won’t let it slip again now.

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Real Madrid’s 2-3 victory at Recreativo put their advantage over second place Barcelona back to five points this weekend after Barça went down 4-2 at Atletico Madrid. Brazilian star Robinho came on as a substitute to win the game for Madrid with two goals in the last twenty minutes, but the performance of the week came from Atletico’s 19-year-old Argentinian Kun Agüero who tore apart Barça’s defence and made the likes of Puyol and Milito look like amateurs.

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It’s comic, it’s tragic and it’s pathetic. Every season Atletico Madrid start their season saddled with a sack full of hope, hype and expectation and at the end of every season there’s rue, regret and an all too familiar disappointment wailing all around.

This time too there’s a strong suspicion that Atleti are here for good; that they are seriously looking to consolidate their position in the top four, that they might even make a run for the title challenge, that they do possess the strength and depth in their squad pre-requisite for a title contender.

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