We Are the Champions - Football Wraps Up in Europe!

The club football season worldwide is into its home straight. Most of the big leagues in Europe have decided who their champions will be - congratulations to the following clubs on their (impending) coronation as league champions -

Bayern Munich (Germany), Juventus (Italy), Paris St Germain (France), Benfica (Portugal), Celtic (Scotland), Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands), Olympiakos (Greece)

However, the title race is very much on in the two best leagues in the world with the champions of both English Premier League and Spanish La Liga still up in the air. Liverpool and Atletico Madrid are currently heading the table and on paper and current form, should be champions - but considering the way both leagues have gone this season, there could be a few more twists and turns to come.

Here's a look at the run-in for both English and Spanish leagues -

English Premier League
Liverpool (80) lead the table from Chelsea (75) by 5 points and Manchester City (74) by 6 points. Liverpool host Chelsea on Sunday afternoon in a game that will go a long way to deciding the title - a win to the home side (their odds are good given Mourinho's intentions to field a weakened side ahead of their Champions League semifinal clash with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday) will mean Liverpool have a hand on their first league win in the Premier League era and their first since 1990 - the gap to Chelsea will be 8 points with 2 games and even if City win their game in hand, they will still be at best still 3 points behind the leaders, although they could very well take the title race to the final day.

City do face two banana skins - Crystal Palace and Everton away, both sides have been excellent at home and are very much top ten material, but the game against Everton could definitely spell the end of City's title aspirations given their record at Goodison Park, meaning, the title could very well be settled at Selhurst Park when Liverpool visit Crystal Palace on Monday, 5 May.

Remaining games - 
Liverpool - Chelsea (H) (win), Crystal Palace (A) (win), Newcastle (H) (win)
Chelsea - Liverpool (A) (lose), Norwich City (H) (win), Cardiff (A) (win)
Manchester City - Crystal Palace (A) (win), Everton (A) (lost), Aston Villa (H) (win), West Ham (H) (win)

(win/draw/lose) - my tip

Verdict - Looking good for Liverpool to start catching up with those bloody Mancs in the overall league wins table.

Spanish La Liga
Atletico Madrid (85) currently lead Real Madrid (82) by 3 points and Barcelona (81) by 4 points. Atletico do face a tough finish to the season - 3 of their games are away from home including a finish at the Camp Nou against Barcelona. Despite Barcelona's recent form, that game set for the weekend of 16-18 May 2014 still has the features of a title decider and cup final all in one, more so if results go Barca's way and less so for Atletico.

However,it is Real Madrid who are mathematically, realistically and on form, Atletico Madrid's closest rivals in the title race and their run-in is fairly straightforward with games against opposition that they have beaten already this season. They do have a bigger squad than Atletico to cope with the demands of a title race as well as a campaign for the European Cup so even though they have do not have the head-to-head with Atletico and Barca in their favour, will very much back themselves to be champions of Spain for the 2nd time in 3 seasons.

Remaining games - 
Atletico Madrid - Valencia (A) (win), Levante (A) (win), Malaga (H) (win), Barcelona (A) (draw)
Real Madrid - Valencia (H) (win), Valladolid (A) (win), Celta Vigo (A) (win), Espanyol (H) (win)
Barcelona - Villarreal (A) (win), Getafe (H) (win), Elche (A) (win), Atletico Madrid (H) (draw)

(win/draw/lose) - my tip

Confidence is strong for Atletico who will be very much focused on winning La Liga - getting to Lisbon for the Champions League Final will be a bonus but Diego Simeone won't be crying all day and night if they eventually succumb to Chelsea. Results against Barca and Real Madrid have shown that they can beat the so-called fancied teams on their day and they appear to have finally figured out how to be leader of the pack having stumbled upon chance after chance earlier in the season to be leaders of the league (imagine if they hadn't missed those chances too - the title would very much have been wrapped up in their favour by now). Valencia and Barcelona will be tough but this is very much an in-form Atletico side riding with destiny - and Diego to remind them so.

Verdict - Atletico to be champions.