Magical Messi nets title for Barca

Lionel Messi’s goal was enough for Barcelona to beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 and clinch the La Liga title for the Catalan club.

The 54,100 at the Estadio Vicente Calderon saw a game which was far from a thriller — until Messi rolled the ball low to the net midway through the second half to ensure Real Madrid’s 4-1 win at Espanyol was in vain.

Exactly a year after Atletico had won the title by drawing 1-1 at Barca’s Camp Nou, the Calatan side had repeated that feat by winning at their rivals ground.

Luis Enrique’s side have now win a 13th La Liga title in the last 25 years, and taken the first step towards what looks increasingly likely to be just the second ‘treble’ in the club’s history.

A fast start to the game suggested that Atletico’s players and fans were not thinking of helping Barca towards the three points required to win the title today, and ensure that city rivals Real ended the season without silverware.

As the game progressed however, both the oppressive late afternoon heat and the unusual situation seemed to be affecting the players. The game featured intermittent spells of excitement interspersed with long lulls in the action.

Many inside the ground were also following Madrid’s game at Espanyol, with Atletico’s fans also hanging on Valencia’s clash at home to Celta in their race for third spot.

News filtering through of an early miss by Blancos talisman Cristiano Ronaldo at Cornella El Prat, and Celta going 1-0 up at Mestalla, did little to inject any further urgency into either side.

Lionel Messi had come closest for Barca with a free-kick off the crossbar from a tight angle, but neither team seemed too worried by the 0-0 stalemate at the break.

Early in the second half it was Godin — just like last year — who rose to head a corner goalwards, but this time the ball flew just over.

With the Calderon game again going through another lull, word came through that Cristiano Ronaldo had scored his 43rd La Liga goal of the season to put Madrid ahead at Espanyol.

Less than 10 minutes later Messi stepped up to the challenge, playing a one-two with Pedro in tight confines inside the area, before carefully guiding a low shot to the far corner from 12 yards.

It was Messi’s 41st of the campaign, and meant his team had one hand on the trophy.

Ronaldo scored twice more at Espanyol to move to 45 for the season – and the Portuguese is now long odds-on to win the ‘Pichichi’ award with just one game remaining.

But Barca’s talisman will likely not have been too concerned, given he had scored the goal which clinched this season’s title.

For Atletico, this could still be a damaging loss – as soon after Messi’s goal Valencia centre-back Nicolas Otamendi’s header made it 1-1 and Simeone’s side need a point from next week’s game at in-form Granada to clinch third.

The Argentine coach has been regularly drumming home through recent weeks that third place in La Liga —confirmation of Los Colchoneros as the best of the rest in Spain — means this is still a successful season. The summer should see more evolution of the Atletico squad, and hopefully not the big name exits of last year.

This will be the first season of Diego Simeone’s term as coach without a trophy, but he has also pointed out regularly that Atletico have never in the past qualified directly three times in a row for the European Cup or Champions League. Considering the financial restraints he works under, this is no mean achievement.

The final whistle saw Bara’s players dancing in joy on the pitch, with Atletico’s applauding their fans. It was a big change from 12 months ago for blaugrana fans and pundits – and their season is far from over yet.