Diego Simeone said Atletico Madrid accomplished their self-imposed goal of a third-placed finish in La Liga after concluding their campaign with a 2-0 win over Celta Vigo on Saturday.
Atletico remained in the title hunt until a loss a week ago at Levante and ultimately finished three points behind champions Barcelona and two off of runners-up Real Madrid.
Simeone remained positive after Saturday's win, saying that competing with the likes of their title rivals was impressive with such an inexperienced squad.
"The goal of being third was achieved. Year after year we work better competing with ourselves, with our own numbers," he said. "Surely next year will be hard, because surpassing the numbers of this year will be difficult.
"It makes us happy to be fighting with the best in the world. Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich in the Champions League, speak for themselves. Finishing there, three points away from them leaves you with the feeling, on the one hand, that it's possible, the thing is that they are very good, without a doubt.
"The expectations are still good. [Jan] Oblak is young, [Stefan] Savic is young, [Jose] Gimenez is young, Koke is young, [Luciano] Vietto is young, [Yannick] Carrasco is young, [Angel] Correa is young, and Saul [Niguez] is young.
"Then we have those who don't give up such as Tiago, Gabi and [Fernando] Torres. Internal competition makes us compete very well against other teams. I think that is the greatest virtue this group has."
Simeone said Barcelona were worthy title-winners, but they benefitted from the close competition of their rivals in Madrid.
"I would like to congratulate Barcelona," he said. "They have played a fantastic season with a brilliant team and have been the fair champions, although they had some troubles.
"I think that happened because of the presence of Real Madrid and our own to fight until the end, but Barcelona was a fair champion."
The manager said Saturday's finale was good preparation for the Champions League final against Real Madrid in two weeks' time.
"I didn't like today's first half but I liked the second," he said. "In the second half, the team changed the pace, was solid in the the attacking transition, was stronger in pressuring and avoided almost all the scoring chances of Celta, which is a very offensive team and attacks very well.
"It's a good situation that leaves is with reassuring feelings and now we have to work well these days that are left with the calmness and the determination that we have always had."