Atletico Madrid win La Liga title after holding Barcelona to draw

It wasn't supposed to happen. They had played so very well all season long, winning plaudits from every possible angle. On the basis of that play, they probably deserved to be champions. 

But this was La Liga, where Barcelona and Real Madrid ruled, and eventually, the heartwarming story that was Atletico Madrid's season would turn to rubble, and order would be restored.

It never was.

[Courtesy: BeIn Sports]

Atletico Madrid have completed what many thought was unthinkable, capturing their first league crown since 1995-96 after holding Barcelona to a 1-1 draw in Saturday's title-deciding match at the Camp Nou.

The monotony is broken.

Needing just a tie in the contest, the task was always going to be a difficult one for the perennial dark horses. Even before they found out that their traveling fans were only going to be given roughly 500 tickets for the match at the Camp Nou - which holds nearly 100,000 people.

When Diego Costa and his 27 league goals left the match early in the first half with a recurrence of his lingering hamstring issue, things got significantly more difficult. 

Arda Turan was then forced off minutes later with an undisclosed injury of his own, ratcheting up the difficulty level even more.

It was all going against them.

For a club that had battled against its vastly more wealthy opponents and not only kept up with them, but set the pace on multiple fronts all season long, it would have been a cruel blow to have them fall short at the final hurdle.

But when Sanchez fired his club into the lead with a thunderbolt into the roof of the net late in the opening half, there was an air of inevitability that this Spanish season would end in the same way as so many before it - with Barcelona on top of the table.

Alas, sometimes the underdog does win.

Diego Godin, the stalwart of an Atletico defense that was so stingy all year long in allowing just 25 goals, rose highest from a corner in the second half, and sent a bullet header beyond a helpless Pinto in the Barcelona goal.

It's impossible to quantify just how much 'character' a team has, and many may scoff at the suggestion that one club had more of a 'will' to win than the other, but it's impossible to deny the fact that this Atletico side possesses something special that does not show up in a final stat sheet.

(Perhaps that incredible mettle is one of the reasons the Barcelona fans stood in unison to give their opponents a standing ovation at the end of the match).

The Blaugrana threw everything they could towards the opposition goal late in the match, introducing Neymar and Xavi off the bench.

But it was to no avail.

Atletico Madrid are the well-deserved champions of Spain.