Why Rostov Brace Can Help Antoine Griezmann Kickstart a Strong End to 2016

They’re even winning when they aren’t playing well now.

That last, often strived-for quality of elite sides is often the most difficult to achieve. How to break teams down, how to pinch the points at the last, how to win when winning looks impossible. Some have been doing it for generations, but for others—thrust into the limelight as an elite-level club in recent years—it has been longed for.

And when you’re an elite-level club, you need elite-level players. Luckily, despite a slight drop-off in recent weeks, Atletico Madrid have Antoine Griezmann.

That old adage of form being temporary and class being permanent is far too easy a line to trot out here, but Griezmann’s double as Atletico eventually saw off the determined Russians of Rostov 2-1 at the last could prove to be a vital intervention in the weeks and months to come.

First, and most importantly, there is what it meant for the team.

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What. A. Night. ⚡️ #UCL pic.twitter.com/YnLZv6xHEI

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) November 1, 2016"

After four wins from four in Group D, Atletico are now assured of a place in the UEFA Champions League knockout stages for the fourth season in a row—and they reached the final in two of the previous three.

A group that always looked as though it had plenty of possibilities has been ruthlessly shut down by Diego Simeone and his Atletico side, who haven’t been as dynamic as we’ve seen in La Liga as they’ve won each of their games by a one-goal margin.

They’ve been clinical, as hard as nails at the back and have crucially laid down a marker to the rest of the competition. A third final in four years isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.

As for what it meant for Griezmann, then that was pretty obvious. Relief.

A brilliant and breakout 2016 for the European Championship's Golden Boot winner and best player had threatened to be drawing to a fairly uninspiring close.

Before Tuesday night, his previous goal for Atletico had come almost exactly a month ago at Valencia in La Liga, but the key takeaway from that game was his penalty miss in the first half—one of two from the visitors on the day as Valencia’s Diego Alves proved to be in fine form.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press

And add that to another miss from the spot in the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich—so soon after his miss in the final against Real Madrid last season—and you could see that there was something of a narrative building up.

And then, if anything, his team’s form wasn’t exactly helping.

Griezmann was dropping further and further back in the Atletico team as the likes of Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Angel Correa and Nicolas Gaitan were given starting and starring roles in a side that suddenly had extra threats breaking from midfield.

This didn’t mean that Griezmann was playing badly, just differently, but if you want to be considered among the very best attacking players in the world—and that is a right that he has deserved to hold after his fine year—then you need to be prepared for people to expect a certain level.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press/Associated Press/Associated Press

After the Valencia game, Griezmann went away with France and scored against Bulgaria—but he was overshadowed by his Atletico team-mate Kevin Gameiro, who scored twice. Then in the next game in the Netherlands, it was Manchester United’s Paul Pogba who was the match-winner.

Then back at Atletico, suddenly it was Carrasco who was bursting into the consciousness of world football fans.

The Belgian scored a hat-trick as Atleti swatted aside Granada 7-1 at the Vicente Calderon in league play, with Griezmann in the unusual position of failing to score any of them. The new golden boy then scored the winner at Rostov, and two more at home to Malaga, where Gameiro also netted twice.

This isn’t in any way trying to suggest that Griezmann was angry or jealous that suddenly Atletico weren’t leaning on him for goals as much as they used to previously, but more that he would have wondered just where his next goal was coming from as the team continued to share them around.

Michel Euler/Associated Press/Associated Press

But as Diego Simeone wanted to make clear after the game, this was never a problem for the manager. He told Atletico’s official website: “Griezmann, in the games in which he didn’t score, was one of the most noteworthy players. He always has a good predisposition in the final metres and was displaying a very good level. Today, he scored again, and I’m sure he will be very happy."

Because that is his stock in trade.

In a season when he could find himself standing on the Ballon d’Or podium, the Frenchman will be desperate not to let his standards slip as he seeks to be seen in the same bracket as the very best players in the world.

Of course, whatever he does now isn’t likely to affect that Ballon d’Or vote, and he’s probably only too aware of that, but the status as one of the best around should still be protected as 2016 turns to 2017.

From Atletico’s point of view, too, the fact that the recent improvements in attacking form have come without the Frenchman being at his goalscoring best really should be something to be optimistic about. But if they can sustain it when he is finding the net, then good times really could lie ahead.

Griezmann’s goals against Rostov were the strikes of an arch-predator.

The first was a stunning, acrobatic effort as he connected with a ball that looked out of reach after the touch from a Rostov head following Carrasco’s centre. The second was strangely similar as he read another inadvertent flick-on to prod into the net while others were calling for offside.

They were the type of goals that he was scoring for France in the summer, when he played up front with Olivier Giroud and read his knock-downs to finish with aplomb, but he’s been unable to do similar things for Atletico recently simply because he’s not been told to get into the same positions. Others have been.

That he’s now done it and reminded the world of his goal-poaching talent is yet another indication of what an excellent all-round footballer he is.

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Antoine Griezmann's game by numbers vs. Rostov:

87% pass acc.
7 shots
2 chances created
2 goals
1 last minute winner

Baby-faced assassin. pic.twitter.com/r35squ8SlT

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) November 2, 2016"

With Atletico targeting a strong end to 2016 to keep up title ambitions, tapping into Griezmann’s quality is going to be vital.

Tuesday could be the first step in a little run of goals to end a year in which he’s become an accepted face at the top table of European and world football—a struggle that if anything mirrors Atletico’s own in recent years as they’ve battled with and occasionally past Barcelona and Real Madrid.

They’re now past them in the sense that they’ve qualified for the last-16 of the UEFA Champions League before them, and you can bet that there won’t be many teams hoping to come across both Atletico and Griezmann there.

Not in this form, at any rate.