The end of the “League” Tighter history

Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid face one of the tightest League finals in the history of the competition this Saturday. Only in two of the 85 editions of the league championship led to an authentic final in which the two immersed teams faced each other in a direct duel. The first time was in the season 1945-46, when Barcelona and Seville faced each other in the Les Corts field with the result of a draw at 1 that favored Sevilla, who had gone to the Catalan fiefdom with a point of advantage.

The second time had a different outcome. In the campaign 1950-51, Atlético de Madrid was the one that got away with drawing in the fiefdom of, curiously, Sevilla and closing a title where the first two were separated by only two points.

Outside of these two paradigmatic cases of an authentic league final, there have been other leagues where distances have been minimal, and even null. We review some of the most notorious cases:League 1970-71, Valencia. The Ché team won a highly disputed league where they ended up tied on points with Barcelona, where Atlético was third to one point and Real Madrid fourth to just two.

– League 1980-81, Real society. La Real won a very even league where Basques and meringues tied on points. But nevertheless, the difference in the average goal benefited the Blue and Whites, who with a goal from Zamora drew at the Molinón and added the necessary point to win the championship.

– League 1982-83, Athletic Bilbao. Trained by Javier Clemente, Bilbao added an agonizing title after beating Las Palmas for 1-5 and take advantage of a stumble of Real Madrid against Valencia. One point advantage was enough to win the tournament.

– League 1983-84, Athletic Bilbao. Again the lions conquered the League, in this case accompanied by the Cup. Clemente's won 2-1 to the Real and despite being tied on points with the whites they were proclaimed champions. Barcelona was third, just one point behind them.

– League 1991-92, Barcelona. Two leagues were practically traced to that of 1992 Y 1993. In both, Barcelona came with a disadvantage of one point against Real Madrid. In both, the madridistas had to visit Tenerife. In both, the canaries took the alirón from the meringues to give it to the blaugranas.

– League 1993-94, Barcelona. The Dream Team was encouraged to win leagues in the last moments. But this time, the thing went further. He won it tied on points with Deportivo, who had the title in his hands in the last minute with a penalty that Djukic missed against Valencia. The most even league in history.

– League 2006-07, Real Madrid. Again, madridistas and blaugranas ended up on points in a league. The goal average gave the victory to the first in a League that could have fallen before in favor of the Catalans had there not been a certain Raúl Tamudo, who a day before silenced the Camp Nou.

There have been many leagues that have been decided in the last days or on the last day. maybe, the fact that in the last five years there has been a certain distance between the first and second and the rest makes one forget that this was not always the case and that tight League finals have been the trend.