They were the little horse in La Liga’s three-horse title race and they did not fall at the last.

Atletico Madrid are La Liga champions for the first time in 18 years after picking up a point at the Nou Camp despite a calamitous first half that looked to have put Barcelona back in control.

Both Diego Costa and Arda Turan were taken off injured in the first 45 minutes and a lightning strike from Alexis Sanchez beat Thibaut Courtois to put Barça 1-0 up but even the half-time advantage could not wake Barcelona from their slumber.

Costa was in tears on the bench after going off.

The Chelsea-bound striker must sense that next week’s Champions League final will come too soon for him and that his niggling hamstring could even jeopardise his World Cup dream.

Courtois is another who has now surely played his last league game for Atletico with Jose Mourinho unlikely to sanction more Champions League heroics for a club other than Chelsea next season.

But both have signed off as league champions.

It was always going to take something special to beat Courtois and it came towards the end of the first half from Sanchez. The Chile winger’s rocket shot found the Belgian keeper’s top corner after Leo Messi had chested down Cesc Fabregas’ long ball. It looked then like being the goal that would decide the league.

It had not been a typical Barcelona goal — fitting for what has not been a typical Barcelona season.

Their passing football has deserted them and they started this game without Xavi — the veteran midfield maestro left on the bench.

Having taken the lead surely Barcelona would produce a second half worthy of champions but they came out sleeping for the second period.

First David Villa hit the post and then Diego Godin powered a header past Jose Pinto from Koke’s corner to put Atletico Madrid level. Barcelona’s achilles heel had come back to haunt them again and this time it would cost them the league title.

With the introduction of Neymar the home side improved and the change seemed to inspire Messi, who had the ball in the net only for an off-side flag to rule out the effort.

A title-winning goal from Messi would have been the perfect way to celebrate a new £16.3million contract but neither in this game nor the other 37 of the season has he looked like the four-times Balon d’Or winner of old.

His season has been as flat as Barcelona’s. Around 2,000 of their supporters had gathered outside the team’s hotel two hours before kick-off and as the team coach made the half-mile crawl to the stadium their fans lined both sides of the road to cheer them towards the Nou Camp.

But no amount of last-day euphoria could reignite their campaign.

Tata Martino’s pre-match comments had set the tone when he said that he would gladly swap places with Atletico, preferring to need an away point, to a home win. Surely emphasizing Barca’s home record over the course of the season – having dropped just four points – would have been a better message to send out.

Simeone’s message had been stronger all season long. And the Atletico coach had led his team to the title as coach, just as he did as a player 18 years ago.

As the Nou Camp emptied Barcelona’s disappointed supporters turned to whistle their own team off the pitch and to chant ‘Atleti! Aleti’ at their conquerors.

Up in the gods of the Camp Nou the 447 Atletico Madrid supporters celebrated and on Sunday there will be closer to 100,000 on the streets of the capital as they bring the League title back home.

In the build-up to the last game of the season Simone had shown his players footage of their pre-season training. The idea behind his last great motivational tactic was to remind the players of how they suffered in the summer to find the fitness that would carry them through a whole season.

Even he had probably not reckoned on so much suffering in the last 90 minutes losing Costa and Arda Turan so soon. But they had gritted their teeth and gone the distance to win the league.

—Daily Mail