Fulham reached the 2010 Europa League final, which they contested with Atlético Madrid in Hamburg, losing 2 – 1 after extra time.

During the 1930s and 1940s and in the last two decades, however, La Liga has seen other champions, including, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia, Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Real Betis, and Sevilla.

When the Primera División resumed after the Spanish Civil War, it was Atlético Aviación ( nowadays Atlético Madrid ), Valencia, and Sevilla that initially emerged as the strongest clubs.

Although Atlético Madrid, previously known as Atlético Aviación, were champions in 1950 and 1951 under catenaccio mastermind Helenio Herrera, the 1950s saw the beginning of the Barcelona / Real Madrid dominance.

During this era, only Atlético Madrid offered Real Madrid any serious challenge, adding four more titles to their tally in 1966, 1970, 1973, and 1977.

Atlético Madrid won their ninth Primera División title in 1996 before Real Madrid added another Liga trophy to their cabinet in 1997.

In 1963, De Kuip hosted their first European final ( Cup winners ' Cup ) between Tottenham Hotspur and Atlético Madrid.

* Juan Valera ( 1984 –), Atlético Madrid footballer and 2010 Murcia sportsman of the year

In his penultimate season, he suffered a severe knee injury which rendered him unavailable for most of the successful 1994 – 95 league campaign, but still bounced back for a final solid season, after which he left for Atlético Celaya in Mexico, where Butragueño was also playing, shortly after the arrival at Madrid of president Lorenzo Sanz.

However, the first Champions League match at home against Atlético Madrid was lost 0 – 3.

PSV were chanceless in their Champions League group, losing to Liverpool both home and away, losing away against Olympique de Marseille and losing home and away against Atlético Madrid.

These poor results meant that PSV finished last in their group, behind Liverpool, Atlético Madrid, and Marseille, respectively.

Sporting de Gijón have worn red and white striped jerseys since their inception, being the first spanish actual first division's team to wear red & white, as both Athletic Bilbao and Atlético Madrid wore blue and white until 1909.

After years in the second division facing serious economic and sporting difficulties, Albacete returned to the top flight in the 2002 – 03 campaign, led by César Ferrando ( later of Atlético de Madrid ).

The team managed to reach the last-16 in Copa del Rey nonetheless, notably beating Atlético Madrid 3 – 1 on aggregate.

This club later evolved into Atlético Madrid.

Of the 50 shirts bought by Elorduy, half were then sent to Atlético Madrid, which had originally begun as a youth branch of Athletic.

The 1960s, however were dominated by Real Madrid and Atlético Bilbao only had a single Copa del Rey win in 1969.

Former forward of Espanyol de Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Juventus and River Plate.

Notable canteras include those of Athletic Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Real Racing Club, Atlético Madrid, RCD Espanyol and Sporting de Gijón.

Only three of the founding clubs, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, have never been relegated from the Primera Division ; six other clubs have never been below the top two tiers: Sevilla FC, Real Sociedad, Sporting de Gijon, Valencia CF, RCD Espanyol, and Atlético Madrid.

After coaching Atlético Madrid to second place in La Liga during the 1989 – 90 season, he returned to Espanyol for the 1990 – 91 season.

Galatasaray faced Atlético Madrid in the 2009 – 10 UEFA Europa League knockout phase where they lost 3 – 2 on aggregate to the eventual champions.

Emre moved to Atlético Madrid on 29 May 2012, the Champion of the Europa League.

Again, he played in significantly more minutes than García as Atlético finally qualified to the Europa League, and added four goals in La Liga, including a brace against Málaga CF in a 3 – 0 away win, both goals coming from headers.

Following the 3 – 0 defeat to Spanish side Atlético Madrid in the first leg of Europa League, Quaresma had a alteration with manager Carlos Carvalhal when the incident happened in the dressing room at half-time after Carvalhal put off Quaresma for İsmail Köybaşı much to his dismay as he did not take the news lightly and began throwing water bottles, before launching a stinging attack at Carvalhal.

On 28 July 2011, he scored twice for Atlético in a 2 – 1 Europa League win against Strømsgodset IF.

Baird started the 2010 UEFA Europa League Final against Atlético Madrid ahead of John Paintsil, but on 14 September 2010, Baird signed a new contract with Fulham, keeping him at Craven Cottage until at least the summer of 2013.

He also came off the bench in the UEFA Europa League Final defeat against Atlético Madrid.

Konchesky played for Fulham in the 2009-10 Europa League final against Atlético Madrid in which Fulham were defeated after losing 2-1 from two Diego Forlán strikes.

They were now set to face Atlético Madrid in an all Spanish Europa League final.

In 1956 Honvéd qualified for the second European Cup competition and in the first round they were drawn against Atlético Bilbao.

After beating RC Lens ( France ) 3 – 2, FCK qualified for the group stages of the UEFA Cup, where it played Panathinaikos FC ( H ), FC Lokomotiv Moscow ( A ), Atlético Madrid ( H ) and Aberdeen.

Atlético narrowly missed out on qualification for the UEFA Cup, but by finishing in seventh place in the 2003 – 04 season, they qualified for the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup, giving Torres a first taste of a competition at the European level.

Athletic reached the Copa del Rey final after having defeated teams like Atlético Madrid and FC Valencia.

There had been a precedent for this ; Real Madrid were allowed to keep the first Copa de la República ( 1936 ), Sevilla, the first Copa del Generalísimo ( 1939 ) and, Atlético Madrid, the last Copa del Generalísimo ( 1976 ).

On 27 June 1987, Real Sociedad won their only Copa del Rey title, beating Atlético Madrid 4-2 on penalties after drawing 2-2.

In the following season's Copa del Rey, Real Sociedad defeated Atlético Madrid again by beating them in the quarter-finals.

So far, Atlético Paranaense has participated in three editions of the Copa Libertadores, in 2000, 2002 and 2005.

In 2006 Clube Atlético Paranaense had a good performance in the Copa Sudamericana, reaching the semifinals after defeating high-profile teams like Argentina's River Plate and Uruguay's Nacional.

Atlético Mineiro won one Brazilian championship in 1971, and has also won two CONMEBOL Cups ( nowadays called Copa Sudamericana ) and 40 State Championships.

* Copa Libertadores da América – Grêmio defeat Atlético Nacional 4-2 ( aggregate score )

On 19 May 2010 Sevilla defeated Atlético Madrid 2-0 in the 2010 Copa del Rey Final in the Nou Camp, with goals from Diego Capel and Jesus Navas.

His brother, Santiago, won the Copa Mustang with Atlético Nacional.

Atlético ended the season in 10th and were knocked out by Real Zaragoza in the Copa del Rey round of 16.

Atlético Nacional was the first Colombian team to win the Copa Libertadores de América, which they did in 1989.

The first game was against Club Atlético Banfield in the Copa Sudamericana.

In the Copa CONMEBOL, they finished sub-champions, behind Atlético Mineiro of Brazil.

In 1989, he was part of the Atlético Nacional team that won the Copa Libertadores in 1989.

This is the closest a Peruvian team has come to the Copa Libertadores Final since 1972, when Universitario de Deportes had a similar fate playing against Club Atlético Independiente.

But some of the giants of Brazilian football, like Botafogo, São Paulo and Atlético Mineiro have never won the Copa do Brasil.

Racing also returned to Copa Libertadores in 1989 being eliminated by Atlético Nacional.

In June 1999, he won his first trophy with Valencia, beating Atlético Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

Rene Higuita played the majority of his club career with Colombian side Atlético Nacional where he helped the team win the Colombian League on numerous occasions as well as the Copa Libertadores and Copa Interamericana, both in 1989.