In the 34th round of the 2021-22 La Liga season, Real Madrid beat Espanyol 4-0 at home. After scoring these 3 points, Real Madrid are also determined to lock up the La Liga title of the season four rounds earlier. After winning the championship, there are still 4 rounds of league games to play in the future, but the focus of attention is not on the win or loss of the game, but whether the next 4 opponents will pay tribute to Real Madrid, especially Atletico.
Spain's "Marca" has analyzed that if Barca loses too many points, and Real Madrid may lock in the La Liga championship in advance, then the city's sworn enemies will line up at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium to welcome the new champion. This prediction was not taken to heart by many people at the time, and even thought that the suspense of the La Liga title race would continue. Because Barca at that time was already unbeaten in 15 rounds of La Liga, the state was hot. Real Madrid also face a two-legged battle between the Champions League semi-finals and Manchester City, and need to be distracted.
But not long after the news of Marca, Barca lost points and lost to relegation team Cádiz. After a difficult victory over Real Sociedad, he lost to mid-range side Rayo Vallecano. In addition, Barca have only scored 1 goal in the last 3 league rounds, which is a world away from the previous four-goal victory. On the other hand, Real Madrid became more and more courageous, not only tenaciously losing to Manchester City by 1 goal, but also preserving the hope of reversal. In La Liga, there was a wave of 3 consecutive wins, and the suspense was quickly cracked.
The La Liga title was created, and as the Western media had predicted before, it was determined in time before the Madrid derby. So the question is, will Atletico line up at their home stadium to welcome their number one rival, Real Madrid? The answer is probably no!
Also from The Marca newspaper, which said atletico currently has no plans to line up to pay homage to Real Madrid. While they had been waiting to see if Real Madrid would become champions before the derby, it would not have been so easy for them to line up at home to welcome Real Madrid. Atletico have several reasons to avoid doing so, with most Atletico players opposing the formation to pay homage to Real Madrid, which they see as more of a humiliation than respect for Real Madrid.
Indeed, lining up at their own doorstep to welcome their mortal enemies Real Madrid, even if it is applause, it is certainly not from the heart, which is a bit difficult to mean. Atletico centre-back Gimenez's point of view is very representative: "Line up to pay tribute to Real Madrid? We will congratulate them, but we have a lot of respect for our fans. "The meaning is very clear, Atletico players will congratulate Real Madrid, but the way the team salutes is disrespectful to their own fans.
The point of view is similar to that of Atletico goalkeeper and team captain Oblak, who doesn't like to do such things against his heart. 'As captain, I'm the kind of player who doesn't like to line up to pay homage to people or be lined up to salute, but the club will make decisions and we'll do what's necessary.'
What decisions will Atletico executives make? Maybe we've seen some clues. After Real Madrid won the title, several La Liga teams, including Barca, have congratulated them, but this does not include Atletico.
In addition, the practice of welcoming the new section champion in a line like this is not mandatory, it is completely spontaneous. In the 2017-18 season, after Barca won la Liga, Real Madrid refused to welcome Barca. The reason is that when Real Madrid won the Club World Cup, Barca refused to welcome them. Therefore, given the antagonistic relationship between the two teams, it is indeed possible that Atletico Madrid will not line up at the Wanda Metropolitano to pay tribute to Real Madrid.