Sport360° view: All that matters is football in La Liga decider

Andy West 12:31 17/05/2014
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  • Face-off: Tonight's match will decide who wins La Liga.

    Forget Lionel Messi’s new contract. Forget Luis Enrique’s impending arrival in place of the departing Tata Martino.

    Forget Atletico Madrid’s upcoming all-Madrid Champions League meeting with Real.

    Forget Diego Costa’s possible transfer to Chelsea.

    For 90 minutes tonight all those issues which have utterly dominated the news agenda in Spain and beyond over the last few weeks, are nothing more than sideshows to the main event when only one thing matters: football.

    In a truly unique occasion, the Spanish La Liga title will be settled in a one-off battle between the top two teams, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

    For football fans, it couldn’t get much better.

    The destination of the championship crown up for grabs in one of the best leagues in the world between two of the best teams in the world containing a batch of the best players in the world, all taking place, fittingly enough, in the biggest stadium in Europe.

    And it should be quite some game, packed full of tension, commitment, drama and world-class quality.

    Don’t expect a goal-fest – these two teams have, after all, already met on five occasions so far this season with a less than grand total of just five goals being scored.

    Atletico’s approach is entirely predictable: they will sit deep, restrict Barcelona’s space around the edge of the box, soak up pressure and look to strike fast on the counter-attack.

    Perhaps the key to the game is how effectively they are able to achieve the latter of those objectives.

    However good they are at the back, Atletico can’t afford for the game to become a 90-minute defensive test.

    To keep Barca honest and prevent the huge home crowd from gathering unstoppable momentum on their team’s behalf, Atletico must provide an attacking threat of their own.

    Diego Costa, clearly, will play a central part in that aspect of their gameplan, and whether or not the powerful striker has made a full recovery from his hamstring injury to perform his battering ram role will be crucial.

    The greatest question, however, is whether Barca will be able to break down a stubborn Atletico defence which they have only managed to breach on two occasions in this season’s five encounters – and both of those were scored by Neymar, who is unlikely to start today.

    In particular, Barca need their greatest star, Messi, to step up. He has been left extremely frustrated by Atletico’s suffocating defence this season, offering limp, anonymous performances in both legs of the recent Champions League quarter-final tie.

    Messi is a much better player than he has shown against Atletico so far this season.

    Diego Simeone knows that better than anyone, and his success in once again limiting his compatriot could decide the outcome.

    The last time the Spanish title was decided by a head-to-head final day meeting between the top two was way back in 1951, before most of the people who will be watching today’s game were even born.

    That’s how special this occasion is. Let’s just enjoy the game for what it is.

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