For any other team in the world, you might worry that, at this stage of such a marvellous season, they might take their eye off the ball. With Diego Simeone, it doesn't even enter the mind as an option. 

For all the talk of their overachievement based on their financial situation, everyone's adoration of them as a squad and football club, and their climb into the dizzying heights at the top of European football, it would all seem in vein if they don't finish the season with a medal. 

Diego Costa and his Atletico teammates head to Levante with over three weeks to prepare for the all Madrid derby in the Champions League final on May 24th. If they are to defeat Levante and Malaga seven days after that, they will be crowned La Liga champions with the result at Barcelona's Nou Camp irrelevant.

At the beginning of the season, it was said that one significant injury and Atletico Madrid's season was doomed but how Cholo Simeone has kept his best eleven on the field for such a grueling season will be studied in years to come as other coaches try to learn from him. The rigid, no-nonsense approach with which they play and the hard-running style they use has not taken it's toll just yet, although their last few La Liga games have been less energetic than before, but that is to be expected.

They have been carried by their fans and by Simeone's enthusiasm on the sideline and belief in their project. They have no real injury worries and are expected to line out as always against Levante. 

Levante, on the other hand are a team who have nothing to play for, except pride. They lie nine points clear of 18th placed Almeria with a much healthier goal difference and have beaten them and drawn with them this year, thus ensuring safety. They haven't won since the last day of March(a 0-2 over Granada) and haven't won at home since the first day of March (a 2-0 victory over Osasuna). They are comming off the back of two losses and two draws. The last draw away to Elche was enough to see them mathematically ensure safety and perhaps the celebrations from this news mixed with this years Champions League finalists coming to town might be too much for them.

Diego Costa's goal tally lies at 27, which ties him with Messi and leaves him three goals shy of Ronaldo's mark. He will certainly want to use the last three games of the season to earn himself his first ever Pichichi award which is given to Spain's leading scorer in the top division. 

It would appear that this has all the hallmarks of another gutsy performance from Atletico with their first La Liga title since 1996 on the line and the team who are everybody's darling of late. However, it will take a disciplined performance to beat a team who have nothing to lose. The pressure is most certainly on Atletico and Simeone, but they have been dealing with it expertly all season. 

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About the author
Robbie Dunne
A Journalism Student with a love for the beautiful game, a fondness for Manchester United and Atletico Madrid