Diego Simeone on Sunday hailed Luis Suarez as “extraordinary” after the Uruguayan scored the goal that could win Atletico Madrid the Spanish title, his late winner snatching a dramatic 2-1 win over CA Osasuna.
Atletico trailed Osasuna with nine minutes to go at the Wanda Metropolitano and faced a defeat that would not just have postponed their bid to be champions, but allowed Real Madrid, who were beating Athletic Bilbao, to go top with one game left.
Instead, Atletico scored in the 82nd and 88th minutes to pull off a stunning turnaround.
Photo: AFP
Renan Lodi smashed in an equalizer, before Suarez proved the hero, firing in to spark mass celebrations.
“He’s extraordinary,” Simeone said. “He came here wanting to prove people wrong, wanting to show that he was a forward still at the top of his game. Who better than him to decide a match that seemed to be getting away from us?”
Atletico’s players and substitutes piled onto Suarez in the corner and at fulltime, while some dropped to their knees, not with ecstasy, but relief, the title now just one win away.
“These are moments of happiness,” Suarez said. “It was one of the best first halves of the season. We missed a lot of chances, me in particular, but to win the league you have to suffer and today we stepped up.”
To be crowned champions with a game to spare, Atletico needed Real Madrid to slip up at San Mames, but Nacho Fernandez put Real ahead in the second half and Atletico’s priority quickly became preservation.
Victory maintains their two-point advantage and another win away at Real Valladolid at the weekend would guarantee a second league title in 25 years.
Barcelona are out of the running after they lost 2-1 at home to RC Celta de Vigo.
Santi Mina scored twice, including an 89th-minute winner for Celta after Lionel Messi headed in the opener.
Suarez, who was forced to leave Barcelona last year, has scored 20 goals this season, with his latest strike putting his new team on the brink of the title.
After more than a year away, fans finally returned to La Liga, but only for the two games in the Valencia region, where the COVID-19 infection rate has dropped below the target set by the Spanish government.
At Villarreal, the maximum 5,000 fans cheered their team to a 4-0 home victory over high-flying Sevilla, but 60km down the coast, Valencia, whose relations with their fans are strained, sold only 3,000 of the available places.
The impact was similar, though, as the hosts beat struggling SD Eibar 4-1.
Elsewhere, Deportivo Alaves defeated Granada 4-2, Elche won 3-1 at Cadiz, Getafe edged Levante UD 2-1, Real Betis Balompie beat SD Huesca 1-0 and Real Sociedad thrashed Rwal Valladolid 4-1.
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