Gerardo Martino has stepped down as
Barcelona coach after they missed out on
the Primera Division title in a 1-1 draw
with champions Atletico Madrid.
Martino had been widely expected to leave,
win or lose in Saturday evening's crunch
clash at the Nou Camp, and Barca
confirmed the news as his post-match press
conference was beginning.
"Martino has announced that, by mutual
agreement with the club, he ceases to be the
coach of FC Barcelona," the club said on
their Twitter account."In agreement with
the club I am no longer the coach," Martino said.
"I deeply regret not having achieved the
goals that this club has always been set and
achieved.
"These are great players. My greatest
gratitude goes to the players. They have
made me proud."
Barca's sporting director Andoni
Zubizarreta said: "We are grateful to 'Tata'.
This has been a tough season."
On Friday, Luis Enrique announced he was
stepping down as Celta Vigo coach, having
been heavily linked with a return to the
club where he finished his playing days and
began his coaching career with Barcelona B.
Barcelona went into their final match of the
season needing a win over Atletico Madrid
to steal the title away from Diego Simeone's
men, but despite taking the lead through
Alexis Sanchez's 34th-minute wonder strike,
they were pegged back by a Diego Godin
header early in the second half and Atletico
held on for their first title since 1996.
Atletico did so despite losing key players
Diego Costa and Arda Turan in injury in the
space of eight minutes early in the first
half, with the club confirming that Costa
has suffered a recurrence of his hamstring
injury which leaves his hopes of playing in
next week's Champions League final in the
balance.
"It was a very hard game," Atletico's on-
loan goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois told Sky
Sports 1. "I think not a lot of people gave us
a chance after last week's draw because
Barca just had to win at home and they
were really ready for this game.
"After 20 minutes we lost two important
players and we went 1-0 behind, but in the
second half you saw how we came back. We
had to suffer but we suffered and we won.
"This is the story of Atletico Madrid. For so
many years Madrid and Barca had all the
money, they buy a lot of good players but
we had to find another way. We had good
players, not the best but we worked harder,
suffered in training and had good tactics.
You can achieve good things.
"The supporters of Atletico have had
difficult years but now they can have some
great years and hopefully next week we can
give them another trophy."
