Atletico Madrid Can Help La Liga Challenge with Champions League Win at Rostov
To Russia with love, then. Although it almost isn’t Russia at all.
Rostov Oblast is deep in the south west of the vast country, making FC Rostov one of the kinder away trips for a team from continental Europe. The journey will be less arduous than it could have been, and the rewards could be gleaned from that. At least that’s the plan for Atletico Madrid.
PSV Eindhoven would have had a similar plan three weeks ago, only for their Russian Premier League opponents to twice take the lead before forcing a 2-2 draw—their first goals and first point in Champions League football proper.
But Atletico Madrid are no PSV Eindhoven.
They might be, as Tim Collins pointed out on these pages on Monday, the best team in Europe right now.
Diego Simeone’s charges are on a run of 10 unbeaten matches since last season’s Champions League final. It includes beating Bayern Munich, drawing at the Camp Nou and winning matches by four-, five- and six-goal margins. Their most recent result was a 7-1 win.
They are the type of numbers that should only exist for others, but this is Atletico Madrid we’re talking about.
And it is with all that in mind that they go to Rostov with heads held high, beaming smiles and a sense that it doesn’t matter who Simeone picks for the game. They’ll expect to win and win well. To be honest, it doesn’t matter where Rostov is on the map. They’ll feel that they can run there right now.
A complication in the shape of a trip to an impressive Sevilla on Sunday might exist in the back of Simeone’s mind, because these are the sort of things that football managers are paid to worry about, but it won’t be there for long.
Because for the Atletico boss, this match represents a question of risk and reward.
After the 1-0 wins over PSV Eindhoven and Bayern Munich in their first two matches in the competition, Atletico now go into a double-header with Rostov knowing that two wins would secure qualification. It is a healthy place to be.
And with the big games coming thick and fast in La Liga, there must be a sense that a job done early will be a job done well. Wrapping up qualification quickly will free up minds and bodies for challenges ahead, and in this new, more expansive Atletico that often has a devastating effect. Just ask Granada.
It is with that in mind that Simeone has left no man behind, bar the walking wounded, for the trip to Russia.
All of his big hitters are in the squad, and the rest afforded to the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Kevin Gameiro late on in the Granada rout suggests both will start here. Indeed, both will be eager to get back on the scoresheet after Yannick Ferreira Carrasco and Nico Gaitan hogged the goalscoring headlines at the weekend.
But that eagerness shouldn’t detract from what should be Atletico’s main aim in Russia.
As, perhaps for the first time under Simeone, there is a real sense that all of the striving and fighting and clawing their way towards the top of the La Liga table could be over. They look as though they belong there now.
Of course, they won the league in 2014, but that was seen as culmination of an almighty amount of effort. Every sinew was strained, and there was a real desire to prove that a team seen as the little guy could succeed in a world of big beasts—or two of the biggest beasts in particular.
Now, it’s a little different.
Atletico are scoring goals for fun, they are playing with an attacking verve that has taken a few weeks to fine-tune but is there now, and they are achieving the types of wins that Barcelona and Real Madrid have had a duopoly on in Spain since what seems like time began.
Atletico aren’t punching above their weight any more. They are at their weight, and they are punching back.
But part of being at such a high level is finding that balance between night and day, and what will work best in both scenarios.
You might look at Sevilla as Atletico’s most important match of this week, but if you were inclined to look a little further ahead, then you are drawn back to Rostov.
Because a win in Russia pretty much frees up the Champions League for Simeone’s side. They would be on nine points from three games, probably only needing one point from their remaining three to qualify. That remaining three includes playing Rostov and PSV at home.
It would be done, game over, a place in the knockout stages assured for a club that relishes such occasions. And it would mean that European competition could be placed in the back of Simeone’s mind as the domestic challenge is taken up.
As stated above, Atletico are on a 10-match unbeaten run, and they are playing like a team who believe they are going to stretch that to 15, 20 or 25 matches.
In Spain, perhaps more so than anywhere else, those are the runs that you need to win league titles, and there is a fantastic chance that Atletico can do that.
It is early days, and they still have some remarkable players available to them, but this doesn’t feel as though it is a vintage year for Barcelona or Real Madrid.
The former are conceding goals at an alarming rate and have question marks in defence and over their goalkeeper, while the latter might just be on the verge of going a little stale. They could do with a fresh injection of quality to spice things up a little.
Crucially, neither side has the momentum that Atleti do, and it is that momentum that should be protected and allowed to flourish in Rostov.
Simeone has to go with his big hitters, with the idea again of winning the game in the first hour and withdrawing them for the final 30 minutes.
He has the squad at his disposal to do that, and given how well the team is playing right now, he seems to have got the balance right within that squad.
The performances of a player such as Gaitan—by no means a regular starter, but someone who has joined the group to underline just how strong it is—bear this out in particular, and even if the manager was to change things slightly in Russia, he’d still have a player of the ex-Benfica man’s quality to bring in.
Winning games breeds confidence, and confidence breeds happiness.
Atletico Madrid are experiencing all of that right now, and as such, there has been no talk of how gruelling the trip to Russia will be or how it will affect the players ahead of the Sevilla game. At least not outwardly.
It is a happy group of players but also a talented one.
Rostov will be the next to experience that, and the rewards for winning are obvious.
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