Atletico Madrid Recapture Their Fire vs. Bayer Leverkusen in Champions League

The toll was huge. Gargantuan.

By around 11:30 p.m. local time in Madrid, the normally irrepressible and raucous Vicente Calderon was exhausted. Players, completely spent, lay all over the ground. Raul Garcia had a bandaged face. Mario Mandzukic had ice all over his ankle. Miguel Angel Moya had a busted hamstring. Ditto, it seemed, for Lars Bender. 

Of the 22 players remaining on the pitch when penalties were taken, 10 had yellow cards. Hardly surprising when 34 fouls had been committed, per WhoScored.com, most seeing Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen players crashing into one another, throwing heads together, taking out ankles and shoving elbows around.

Hardly surprising when two of Europe's most physical, uptempo and in-your-face teams met on the same expanse of turf in a last-16 tie in the Champions League. 

But most telling of all was the presence of 50 or more lungs bereft of air upon the close of added time. Fifty-plus lungs seemingly no longer capable of harnessing a handful of desperate breaths to bust the game open. Fifty-plus lungs screaming for the ordeal to end.  

It was like the contest had been a boxing match with a half marathon thrown in at one of the breaks. 

And you know what? When that's the case, when the game has been a brutally taxing arm wrestle, when both teams finish it looking giddy and punch drunk, you know, regardless of the scoreline, that you've just seen every bit of Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid. Every bit of their identity. Every bit of the unbridled fire.

The real thing. The real Atletico. 

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After a string of anaemic performances from Atleti, it was refreshing. Necessary, too.  

Indeed, three consecutive draws against Sevilla, Valencia and Espanyol had witnessed subdued displays from Simeone's typically ferocious men. Losses to Celta Vigo and to Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of this tie had seen the same, meaning the capital club had recorded just one victory in its last six. 

But the results coming into Tuesday's clash hadn't been the primary concern. Instead, it had been the way Atletico had been out-fought by their opponents. The way they'd been out-run. Out-tackled. Out-thought. 

Basically, the way they'd been out-Atletico-ed. Beaten at their own game. On the receiving end of their own treatment. 

Though the team's goal drought had come under focus, the real issue had been in midfield, where a previously industrious group had begun to look laboured—old, even.

Younger, quicker legs had been overwhelming veterans, Gabi and Tiago. And on Tuesday, the latter's suspension forced Simeone to reshuffle. But he went further. On a pivotal evening, he gambled a little. And won. 

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Recognising something different was needed in the middle, the Argentinian brought Cani in to replace Gabi, shifting Koke centrally to stand alongside Mario Suarez, who replaced the suspended Tiago. 

The difference was profound. 

Whereas the veterans had looked short of a gear, Suarez and Koke were a match for Leverkusen's high-octane midfield. In fact, with the help of the sublime Arda Turan and the bustling Raul Garcia after half-time, they outshone the visitors' central ensemble completely.

They crashed in for tackles. Won 50-50s. Fought for balls in the air. Blocked shots. Intercepted. Defended. Attacked. Controlled possession. 

Suarez even scored—the all-important lone goal in the game. 

Energy, ferocity, vitality: They provided exactly what Atletico have largely lacked since the drubbing of Real Madrid in early February. 

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Naturally, the rest of the team followed: Mandzukic cleared balls out of his own penalty area, Antoine Griezmann pressed at every opportunity, Jose Gimenez got rid of everything that came his way, Miranda was a rock and Jesus Gamez, a right-back by trade, worked tirelessly while playing out of position on the left. 

It was impressive. Even if the scoreline had read differently by night's end, the performance on its own would have still been encouraging. 

Indeed, Atletico, after a month of indifference, looked like their old selves again—just what Simeone had wanted. 

"I want a noisy [Vicente] Calderon that pushes us to get things done," the Atleti manager had said in the buildup to Tuesday's game, per UEFA's Marcos Prieto, hoping that a frenzied crowd could lift his team. 

But it was his players, not the fans, who responded most emphatically. They proved they didn't need a push from those in the stands—the crowd on Tuesday evening wasn't loud because it needed to spur on the home side; it was loud because the home side were ferocious from the start. Those qualities we've come to associate with Atletico—fire, intensity, physicality—were back. 

So too, it seemed, was that trademark mentality boasting a heavy dose of defiance. 

"We don't care who we face [in the next round], they're going to be one of the best and nobody will want to face us," Suarez said in the game's aftermath, per Heath Chesters of Inside Spanish Football. 

If Atleti bottle the essence of Tuesday's performance and can repeat it, he's right: No one will.