Mike Larsson, football editor at Superbetting.com takes a look at ATLMs season after they lost in the CL final. As the clock in the Estádio da Luz stadium ticked over to 90 minutes, Atletico Madrid’s season was about to go from absolutely fantastic to downright unbelievable. Diego Simeone’s team had already secured the La Liga title and broken the hegemony of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the league; something that hadn’t been accomplished since Rafa Benitez’s Valancia did so back in 2004. To the unobserved it seemed as though Atletico’s season had come out of nowhere however the steady … [Read more...]
World Cup Group B Team Profile – Australia
Spain will face Australia in the final Group B game in Curitiba, hoping that their passage to the knockout stages has already been processed. In the first profile of the three teams in Group B, La Liga Blog takes a look at whether the Socceroos can cause any trouble for the reigning World Champions. … [Read more...]
Real Madrid v Atletico match preview
The 2014 Champions League season comes to an end this Saturday, with an all Madrid final. Real Madrid overcame the title holders, Bayern Munich, overwhelmingly in the semi-finals, while Diego Simeone’s men beat Chelsea in the other semi-final to set up the first City derby final in the history of the competition. … [Read more...]
Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid Prediction
On Saturday Evening the streets of the Spanish capital will be on lock-down as Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid will descend on Lisbon to contest this year's Champions League Final. Real have won 2 and drawn 1 of the 4 matches they have played this season, including an impressive 5-0 aggregate win in the Copa Del Rey but I can see the final being a tighter, cagey affair. … [Read more...]
The best it will get for Atleti?
This past year must feel like a dream for Atletico Madrid and their supporters. It started on May 17 of last year, when Atletico did the unthinkable and beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the Copa Del Rey Final. Now, a year later, and despite losing Radamel Falcao, the team is only one victory and one tie away from being crowned the Spanish and European Champions. It’s a great story and Atletico Madrid’s current success has been celebrated by not only their fans but by La Liga watchers around the world. The reason? Many believe this team will reform the league by being able to consistently challenge and … [Read more...]
Spanish national team looking to conquer the world yet again
The Spanish national team, some might say arguably the best national side of all time. Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012. Need we say anymore? As the FIFA World cup 2014 inches closer, let’s take a look at whether defending champions Spain have the ammunition to rule the footballing world yet again as they did in scintillating fashion 4 years ago. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past half a decade or so, every football fan worth his salt would know that the Spanish national side have adopted a free-flowing, one touch footballing philosophy (Tiki-Taka as it's informally … [Read more...]
Watch out Barca and Real…Atletico are here to stay
Real Madrid and Barcelona football club have monopolised the Spanish La Liga over the past 10 years. However the two La Liga giants have had intruders to their crown in the past. The brief rejuvenation of champion’s league finalist and former La Liga champions Valencia in the late 1990’s and La Liga pretenders Deportivo La Coruna to name a couple. The two-horse dominance has now a potential long-term gatecrasher in Atletico Madrid. Since the last time Atletico won the league in 1996, Los Colchoneros have always had potential to become a force. Attack minded with players that bring real … [Read more...]
GUEST POST: FC Barcelona – what went wrong this season
Despite the current media and pundit narrative, this season isn’t Barcelona’s Waterloo. Yes, the team lost the Copa Del Rey to Real Madrid, crashed out of the Champion’s League, and barring a miracle won’t win the league. However, taking a realistic view of this season, Barca’s results seem appropriate. Last year the team effectively had two managers as Tito fought his battle with cancer and before that, they lost arguably the best coach of the modern era after a historic four year run. With the hiring of Gerardo Martino this past summer, Barcelona is on its fourth coach in the last three … [Read more...]
A case for Gerard Pique
Pilloried and scapegoated across almost every Barcelona fansite for the past two seasons has been the name Gerard Piqué. “Too slow” “lacking aggression” “Grandson of influential club director”. It is very easy to assign blame when a team once so dominant is no longer operating at the peak of its powers, and the tall, elegant centre half has quite simply become an easy target. Over the past two or three seasons, it is no secret that a remedy for the high-pressing, possession-obsessed style of football resurrected by Pep Guardiola and his late confidant/successor Títo Vilanova, has been … [Read more...]
GUEST POST: Making the game Beautiful again…Thanks Tito Vilanova
I like many La Liga Blog readers first knew about Tito Vilanova from seeing him take over as Barcelona manager in 2012 although I began getting properly into Spanish football thanks to the Barcelona team run by his predecessor, Pep Guardiola. That team was absolutely brilliant and It's only since beginning to follow Spanish football properly that I realised just how big a part to play Tito Vilanova had for Barca. So I wanted to thank him for making the beautiful game beautiful once again... Barcelona to me have always been one of the really big clubs. However for years I always had them on a … [Read more...]