Why Atletico Madrid Shouldn't Fear Bayern Munich Following Champions League Draw
Have they come back down to earth at the Vicente Calderon yet?
Tuesday night’s remarkable slaying of UEFA Champions League holders Barcelona will have got minds racing in the red and white portion of Madrid, with Atletico now three games away from putting right what went drastically wrong in Lisbon two years ago.
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It was then that they came so close, so remarkably, heartbreakingly close to a first ever European Cup/Champions League triumph, only for Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos to snatch it away from them and put Real Madrid on the way to securing a 10th continental triumph for the Spanish capital, with each trophy decked in all-white ribbons.
Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo then put an unfair gloss on the 4-1 scoreline, and for Diego Simeone the prospect of putting right what he will see as a wrong must be hugely motivational. The Atletico Madrid manager doesn’t strike you as a man who forgets.
Yet before the possibility of an all-Madrid final in Milan comes Atletico’s semi-final with Bayern Munich, with the German giants so used to appearing at this stage of the competition that they’ve almost glided through unnoticed up until now.
Bayern boss Pep Guardiola will have an entirely different final in mind of course, with future employers Manchester City still in the competition and harbouring hopes of a first ever European Cup, but in Atletico he will face a challenge that is certainly different from his beloved Barcelona, but also just as difficult.
Because while Simeone might have unfinished business, so too will Atletico fans of a certain generation.
They’ll still remember a previous devastating blow in a European Cup final, the showpiece event in Brussels in 1974 when, after Spain’s future European Championship-winning manager Luis Aragones had given Atletico the lead just six minutes from the end of extra time, an error from goalkeeper Miguel Reina—the father of Pepe—allowed Bayern Munich’s Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck to equalise in the final minute. Bayern won the replay 4-0.
Yet is there much to fear about the current side?
Atletico’s own path to this stage has hardly been smooth, of course. They needed penalties to get past a determined PSV Eindhoven and then recovered from a first leg deficit to noisily oust Barcelona, but Bayern haven’t quite been at their clinical best either.
They looked down and out on more than one occasion in the last 16 against Juventus before recovering and winning through in extra time, while they were never truly comfortable during what many saw as a routine quarter-final with Benfica.
Given Guardiola’s imminent change of environment they are open to suggestions that they just aren’t quite on their game right now, and if that is indeed the case then you can expect Atletico to swarm all over them in a bid to totally knock them off their stride. Exactly as they did to an out-of-sorts Barcelona.
Of course, Bayern have a team full of match-winners and will rightly go into the tie as favourites, but again the same was true of Atletico’s opponents in the previous round.
The fact that the first leg is in Madrid and Atletico will have to go to Munich for the second is somewhat of a problem, but Simeone will be confident that his side can gain a favourable result to take to Germany as a second final in three years looms.
If Atletico can use Barcelona—a team shaped by Guardiola’s design, of course—as a template then there is no reason to suggest that they can’t beat Bayern Munich.
Simeone has revenge in his sights, and so too will Atletico’s fanatical fans.
Bayern, 1974. Real, 2014.
It’s all coming together rather nicely.
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