Will Atletico Madrid Win Spanish League Title? Team in Complete Control of First Place

For the first time in seemingly forever, a team not named Barcelona or Real Madrid is in complete control of the Spanish League title.

The major turnaround got underway on Saturday when the Lionel Messi-led Barcelona took on Valencia. At that point in the campaign, Los Cules were tied for first place with Atletico Madrid; each club had 54 points. Valencia stunned the world by claiming a 3-2 win over Barcelona and put the reigning Spanish champs into a precarious situation with Sunday's matches looming.

Atletico had a chance to take over first place a few weeks back when Barcelona was held by Osasuna, but a loss by the team against Espanyol that same week (Oct. 19) seemingly indicated that first place was not for Diego Simeone's team. However, Los Colchoneros would not be diminished and continued to keep pace with Barcelona and even managed a scoreless draw at home a few weeks ago.

On Sunday, Atletico saw the chance to land in first place for the first time since 1996 and did not let it go. In fact the team seemed to relish a chance to go to the top of the table and destroyed Real Sociedad 4-0.

Real Madrid had a chance to jump past Barcelona and was looking for its sixth straight win; alas a Cristiano Ronaldo red card saw the team lose its first points since Dec.14... against Osasuna.

Now Atletico has the fate of the tournament in its own hands: 16 games remain for the Madrileños, including two more games against Madrid and Barcelona. The final game of the season is actually against Blaugrana; a game that could be played for a draw if all is going according to plan.

Will Atletico Madrid win the Spanish league?