How the Champions League Is Making a Star of Atletico Madrid's Saul Niguez

Just as there are certain horses that suit certain courses, there are certain footballers that suit certain competitions. Saul Niguez and the Champions League seem to go hand in hand.

The 21-year-old midfielder scored his fourth goal in the competition as Atletico Madrid fought off a determined and fairly unlucky PSV Eindhoven to register a 1-0 victory in their opening fixture in Group D of the competition on Tuesday night.

PSV—unbeaten at home in the Champions League last season when they beat Manchester United, Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow at the Philips Stadion before running into the Atletico roadblock in the last 16—have grown into one of the trickier "lesser" outfits to face in this competition.

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On Tuesday, they used possession well, always seemed to have an extra man and were fairly unfortunate when Luuk de Jong saw a goal disallowed in the first half. Only the brilliance of Jan Oblak then denied them from the spot after Andres Guardado drove a low, hard penalty to the Slovenian’s left. He guessed correctly and made a terrific save.

And that the save came in the fleeting moments following Saul’s goal was fitting.

As chaos reigned around him in the PSV penalty area—players flew everywhere as bodies were kicked more than the ball—there was Saul, lurking on the edge of the box.

With the ball reaching him at a difficult height, he showed no discomfort as he fired it into the net with unerring accuracy as though this is what he’s been doing all his life. He’s just 21 years old.

Like Oblak, Atletico’s recent success in the Champions League has come to make Saul as a player, as it is easy to forget that at this time last season he wasn’t considered a regular in Diego Simeone’s plans.

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Of his first 11 appearances of 2015/16, eight saw him either come on as a substitute or eventually be substituted. It wasn’t until he scored in the 2-1 Champions League group-stage win at Benfica last December—building on an earlier group stage goal against Kazakh minnows Astana—that he really started to nail down a position in the starting XI. 

Five days after that Benfica goal, he netted in a 2-1 LaLiga win over Athletic Bilbao, and a reputation was secured.

And in a team that sets up in the way Simeone’s Atletico do, scoring goals from midfield is always going to make you a valuable commodity.

Koke has managed to achieve that over a number of years to become probably the first name on his manager’s teamsheet, but Saul adds another threat from deep, and that has come to bear fruit spectacularly in the Champions League. You need only ask Atletico’s next opponents in the competition about that.

Bayern Munich were huge favourites in last season’s semi-final—bigger favourites than they’ll be when the sides reconvene at the Vicente Calderon at the end of September, certainly—but Saul’s moment of magic early on in the first leg would go on to have a huge bearing on the tie.

You’ll all have seen the goal by now and marvelled at how the midfielder picked up the ball from deep and slalomed his way past Bayern’s team full of stars—among them Xabi Alonso, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara, all of whom enjoy the Spanish national team status that Saul aspires to—before dispatching a sweet left-footed finish beyond Manuel Neuer and into the corner of the net.

When the Calderon closes its doors for the final time this summer, that will be one of the memories that supporters cherish, along with Saul’s spectacular assist for Antoine Griezmann’s fine header in the previous round.

With Atletico losing the second leg of that semi-final in Munich 2-1, that solitary goal from the first would prove to be decisive, and in many ways, it symbolised the way that the club have taken on their Champions League challenges in the past three years.

Although facing up to tougher foes who boast more stars, more experience and a greater number of European honours to their name, Atletico have never been afraid to do things their own way.

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That way usually focuses on the defensive attributes drilled into them by the relentless Simeone, but the Atletico beast is often capable of beauty, too, and in Saul, they have a player who is never afraid to demonstrate that.

Formerly on the books of Real Madrid as a youngster, his success is quite obviously going to be gloried in by Atletico fans desperate to get one over on their city rivals, but there is more and more evidence to suggest that the then-14-year-old Saul made the right decision in swapping Real’s youth setup for Atletico’s in 2008.

The more celebrated of the Madrid pair can and will sign superstars in almost whatever position they want to each and every summer, and Saul surely wouldn’t have got the chance to come through and stake a claim for the first team given just how many managers the club go through.

A loan spell at Rayo Vallecano in 2013/14 furthered the development of an exciting talent, and now it is possible to think of him as one of the best attacking midfielders at the top level of the game, with the prefix "young" not even needed for a player who won’t turn 22 until November.

Against PSV—as he has in other games lately—it was possible to see Saul in a leadership role, taking the game to the opposition with the confidence that he had the ability to back it up.

If, as is widely suspected, it is to be the older Koke who takes over the reins as club captain when Gabi decides to call it a day, then you can see Saul emerging as his deputy—the two of them haring around midfield and having the quality on the ball to complement their energy and effort.

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With so much emphasis placed on Simeone’s midfield selections at the start of this season, it has often been notable that he has used Koke and Saul as his central pairing when games need to be chased. They are intelligent, creative players, and the move is an understandable one. Perhaps it is now something we should be seeing from the start.

Such players are so vital in the technical, tactical world of the Champions League, too, where midfielders who aren’t afraid to "break the lines" will eventually get their just rewards in terms of creating chances or scoring goals.

It is no surprise that Saul has become a talisman in the competition for his side, who are showing just how much they have come to depend on him.

He, you suspect, wouldn’t want it any other way, and with Bayern again in his sights after inspiring an opening-night victory, you can bet that the German giants will be paying special attention to him on September 28.