Last weekend, Atletico Madrid secured their place in the most prestigious club tournament: the Champion's League. They overcame Deportivo La Coruna in the Spanish Primera Division, winning 1-0 through a Diego Forlan goal (former failure at Manchester United) and clinched fourth place. This victory guarantees their promotion to the UCL, irrespective of their final league match against Valencia (Benitez's old stomping ground), even though they could go level on points with Sevilla on Sunday. This is due to the Spanish 'head to head' rule, as they beat Sevilla 4-3 at home in October and 1-2 away in March.
However this success is unwarranted after last seasons inconsistency leaving them in 7th position and qualifying for the Intertoto Cup. The humiliating 6-0 defeat to Barcelona was especially stereotypical of their perennial underachievement and capitulation at the business end of the season. This was undoubtedly one of the factors why Fernando Torres decided to leave his boyhood club who he had passionately served for 12 years, and move upwards to an established European giant who could offer him the best players and competitio
ns to play with/in.But now the Rojiblancos have earned their place in the Champion's League through talents such as Sergio Agüero, Maxi Rodríguez, Diego Forlán, José Antonio Reyes, Simão Sabrosa and Antonio López. So Torres could face his former club sooner than he may have liked, or perhaps he relishes a chance to prove his development at Liverpool FC, especially his prolific goal scoring ability. But what I can say with certainty is that if he scores, he won't be celebrating - but he might just hear: "His armband proved he was a Red; Torres, Torres..."
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