Diego Simeone hailed Luis Suarez as “extraordinary” on Sunday after the Uruguayan scored the goal that could win Atletico Madrid La Liga, his late winner snatching a dramatic 2-1 win over Osasuna.
Atletico trailed Osasuna with nine minutes to go at the Wanda Metropolitano and faced a defeat that would not just have postponed its bid to be champion but allowed Real Madrid, which was beating Athletic Bilbao, to go top with one game left.
Stunning turnaround
Instead, Atletico scored in the 82nd and 88th minutes to pull off a stunning turnaround. Renan Lodi smashed in an equaliser before Suarez proved the hero, firing in from eight yards to spark mass celebrations.
Atletico’s players and substitutes piled onto Suarez in the corner and at full-time, some of their players dropped to their knees, not with ecstasy, but relief, the title now just one win away.
“These are moments of happiness,” said Suarez. Meanwhile in Berlin, Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg clinched Champions League qualification on Sunday, while Hamburger SV’s hopes of rejoining the Bundesliga were put on hold for another year.
The results:
LaLiga: Cadiz 1 (Mari 15-pen) lost to Elche 3 (Milla Peña 58, Gonzalez Polanco 64, Fidel 88); Atletico Madrid 2 (Lodi 82, Suarez 88) bt Osasuna 1 (Budimir 75); Alaves 4 (Pons 8, Duarte 21, Joselu 66, Rioja 72) bt Granada 2 (Jorge Molina 31, Puertas 63); Valencia 4 (Guedes 3, 49, Soler 19, 30) bt Eibar 1 (Gil 39); Barcelona 1 (Messi 28) lost to Celta Vigo 2 (Lorenzo 38, 89); Getafe 2 (Alena 13, Kubo 84) bt Levante 1 (Melero Manzanares 30); Real Betis 1 (Iglesias 57-pen) bt SD Huesca 0; Real Sociedad 4 (Isak 6, 16, Silva 28, Januzaj 35-pen) bt Valladolid 1 (Andre 82); Athletic Bilbao 0 lost to Real Madrid 1 (Nacho Fernandez 68); Villarreal 4 (Bacca 34, 47, 79, Gerard 66) bt Sevilla 0
Serie A: Fiorentina 0 lost to Napoli 2 (Insigne 56, Venuti 67-og); Benevento 1 (Lapadula 13) drew with Crotone 1 (Simy 90+3); Udinese 0 lost to Sampdoria 1 (Quagliarella 88-pen); Parma 1 (Bruno Alves 32) lost to Sassuolo 3 (Locatelli 25-pen, Defrel 62, Boga 69); AC Milan 0 drew with Cagliari 0.
Bundesliga: Mainz 05 1 (Quaison 90+1-pen) lost to Borussia Dortmund 3 (Guerreiro 23, Reus 42, Brandt 80); RB Leipzig 2 (Kluivert 51, Sabitzer 78-pen) drew with Wolfsburg 2 (Philipp 11, 45+1) .
