Luis Suarez rescued Atletico Madrid once again in the biggest game of their season as they beat Real Valladolid to win the 2020-21 La Liga title, just ahead of city rivals Real Madrid.

Oscar Plano opened the scoring for the home side Valladolid in what seemed like Atleti throwing away the title once again. Plano gave his team the lead after just 18 minutes.

Diego Simeone’s side were trailing at halftime but they turned things around in the second half. Angel Correa made it 1-1 in the 57th minute as Yannick Carrasco played Correa in. The Argentine danced around a couple of tackles before unleashing a strike into the bottom-right corner that the keeper could not get to.

10 minutes later, Suarez sent Spain into a frenzy as the Uruguayan calmly finished his goal to give the away team the lead.

This was Atleti’s first league title since the 2013/14 campaign.

Simeone’s side had a double-digit lead at one point in the season and accumulated an impressive 50 points in the first half of the season (through 19 league games) — they lost just once – to Real Madrid – before February, with two draws against Huesca and Villarreal.

 

Atlético couldn’t stop winning and with Barça and Madrid both struggling for form, many anointed Atlético champions-elect before the second half of the league kicked off.

The next stage of what would become their title win would prove to be more trying as injuries mounted, fatigue set in and results were harder to pull out.

A draw and a loss to Levante in February derailed the Colchoneros, and they would go on to draw with Getafe, Madrid and Real Betis (along with losing to Sevilla) in the coming weeks, as their title credentials took a serious knock.

A couple of wins steadied the ship against Eibar and Huesca, but another loss to Athletic and a draw with Barcelona set up the most exciting LaLiga run-in in recent memory.

Atlético won their final three games 2-1 each and ended the league two points ahead of Madrid and seven clear of Ronald Koeman’s Blaugrana.

The winds of change are swirling in La Liga, with uncertainty surrounding both Koeman and Zidane along with several senior players at both clubs.

Simeone, on the other hand, has now won eight trophies as the head coach of Los Rojiblancos and is about to become Atlético’s greatest manager ever. It is his second LaLiga title and Atlético’s 11th overall.