How Atletico Madrid Can Remove Their Champions League Curse This Season
The sound of the iconic Champions League pre-match music is billed as an inspirational force for both the players in Europe’s premier club competition and those who aspire to be there, but for Atletico Madrid, it has come to resemble a song of regret.
After two defeats in the last three finals, there will be a sense of apprehension in the air when Atletico return to Champions League combat at PSV Eindhoven on Tuesday.
This is a tournament that can make legends of mere footballers and can create reputations that last for a lifetime, but it can also leave lasting laments.
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Remember the penalty misses from Antoine Griezmann and Juanfran in Milan in May—one in normal time and one at the end of a heartbreaking penalty shootout?
And what about the fact Sergio Ramos’ goal for Real Madrid was marginally offside?
None of the answers to these questions are to Atletico’s liking.
Two years earlier, there was the last-gasp equaliser from Ramos in Lisbon, Portugal, as Real Madrid got the better of their city rivals again, with the goals from Gareth Bale, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo in extra time each plunging a knife deeper into Atletico hearts.
And even before the Champions League era, there was heartache.
In the 1974 European Cup final in Brussels, a goal from the future Euro 2008-winning manager, Luis Aragones, six minutes from the end of extra time looked as though it was going to beat Bayern Munich, only for a last-minute error from goalkeeper Miguel Reina—the father of Spain’s Pepe Reina—to mean the game went to a replay two days later.
Bayern won it 4-0.
And these three results have become part of the fabric of Atletico Madrid.
Last season’s penalty-shootout defeat in Milan means no club in the competition's history have been in more finals without winning one than Atletico, whose three losses places them “ahead” of the two defeats for French club Stade de Reims and Spanish rivals Valencia.
And it is to Los Che that Diego Simeone’s side could perhaps be looking to ahead of the latest assault on the competition.
Like Atletico, Valencia reached two finals in quick succession, appearing in the 2000 showpiece against Real Madrid and then a year later against Bayern Munich. Again, like Atletico, the first ended in a three-goal defeat and the second was lost on penalties.
The fact Valencia were then managed by a stern Argentinean in Hector Cuper means we can extend the comparisons with Simeone’s side even further, but what we’re interested in is what came next.
With Cuper having felt he had taken his Valencia side as far as he could, he left for Inter Milan in Serie A.
Valencia failed to qualify for the 2001/02 Champions League, so it took the arrival of a new man, Rafael Benitez, and some new ideas for them to be successful again. Benitez won the league title in his first season in charge and then again two years later.
So is all of this evidence that Simeone has already done all he can with this Atletico side? And would perhaps removing him allow for both him and that club to enjoy brighter times ahead?
The defeats in Lisbon and Milan were so tough to take given the nature of them, with the fine margins of football evident in both finals.
Atleti supporters couldn’t even return home to hide from the horror of defeat, either, given the victors on both occasions were holding grand parades throughout the city in that extravagant manner that Real Madrid do.
Simeone is such a passionate, demanding manager the worry is these defeats have taken something out of him, with the desire to get up and go again proving all the more difficult to find when you’ve got up, gone again and once more come agonisingly close to triumphing.
That was certainly the narrative during the disappointing start to this season, as Simeone’s side lumbered into action in a restrictive and clunky formation. But hopefully that has been blown away by the manner of the excellent second-half performance in the 4-0 win at Celta Vigo on Saturday lunchtime.
In giving his players room to breathe by freeing up space in midfield, Simeone has shown the way forward, and he needs to be able to take that into Europe as Atletico again get ready to challenge for a trophy that keeps on dramatically eluding them.
PSV are their first opponents in Group D, but there is little doubt Bayern Munich are the headline act. Russian side FC Rostov—making their Champions League debut—are there to make up the numbers.
And even those opponents make it difficult for Atletico to forget about previous traumas.
Last season’s run to the final featured a shootout victory over PSV in the last 16 after two goalless legs, and after beating Barcelona in the quarter-finals, there was the thrilling away-goal victory over Bayern Munich in the semis.
Both wins were packed full of what has come to be known as “Cholismo”—that almost trademark gritty, clenched fists and teeth of a quality that Simeone has expertly instilled in Atletico over his nearly five years in the job.
But such a quality often relies on Cholo's team being seen as the underdogs.
After two Champions League finals in three years, they should be seeing themselves as being among the European elite. Different qualities should emerge, and perhaps they could end up making a difference were they to get to yet another final in this competition.
They’ve certainly got the players to make that happen.
Griezmann comes into the tournament looking to further his standing in the game after finishing as the top scorer and best player at the summer’s European Championship. And in Kevin Gameiro, he has valuable striking company and a player with huge European pedigree, having won three successive Europa Leagues with Sevilla.
There are other fantastic players sprinkled through the squad.
If Atletico can treat this time around in the Champions League a little differently, if they can get on the ball and look to dictate play, if they can be more proactive than reactive—even against Bayern Munich—then perhaps these players will have happier tales to tell rather than yet more stories of misery.
Los Rojiblancos have enough of those. The Champions League’s serial losers are back, and they’re back with even more points to prove.
A slight switch in emphasis, and the acknowledgement they really do belong at this level, could change everything for them—and finally put smiles on the faces of fans who have already suffered enough.
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