Manchester City will face an Atletico side that have rediscovered their roots
One of the most interesting Champions League quarter-final ties will be Manchester City vs Atlético Madrid, as two very different coaches face each other in the form of Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone. It’ll be the first ever time their current clubs meet in official competition, while these two legs will bring us only the fourth and fifth ever Guardiola vs Simeone duels.
There was a 2-1 Barcelona win over Atleti in 2012, just after Simeone took over and just before Guardiola left his boyhood club, before the 2015/16 Champions League semi-final between the Rojiblancos and Bayern Munich, which finished 1-0 to the Spanish side in Madrid and 2-1 to the Germans in Munich, seeing El Cholo’s men progress on away goals.
Other than those three duels, we’ve never again seen Guardiola’s uber-attacking football go up against the rock solid defence of Simeone. After a six year wait, we’ll finally witness this fascinating tactical tussle again.
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Atlético’s improved form
The strange thing is that 2021/22 had been the most un-Atleti of Atleti seasons. They were conceding goals left, right and centre and, even when they were winning, they were generally doing so with scorelines like 4-3. 3-2 or 3-1. Often, they weren’t even winning and finishing inside the top four looked like it would be a struggle.
But, Simeone’s side have improved in recent weeks and they’ve done so by getting back to basics. Even though the Argentine has generally maintained the 3-5-2 that won the Rojiblancos the league title last year, rather than going all the way back to the deep 4-4-2 of years past, there has still been a significant shift in style over February and March.
Atleti are once again playing counter-attacking football and playing it well, helped in this by the return of Antoine Griezmann, the development of João Félix and the benching of Luis Suárez. In defence, they’re looking far more solid thanks to the arrival of Reinildo in January, while the effort levels and willingness to track back have gone up across the board. It has also helped that Jan Oblak is rediscovering some form, after a poor start to the campaign.
With all of this, Atletico Madrid are starting to look like Atletico Madrid again. They have now won 1-0 two matches in a row, against Manchester United and against Rayo Vallecano, which was only the second time this season they’ve won back-to-back games to nil. The other time, though, included a 5-0 cup win over third-tier Rayo Majadahonda.
200 - @atletienglish's Diego Simeone 🇦🇷 is the 4th manager to oversee 200 clean sheets in @LaLigaEN, after Luis Aragonés 🇪🇸 (230), Miguel Muñoz 🇪🇸 (225) & Javier Irureta 🇪🇸 (204); currently on 393 matches, he has reached that milestone in fewer games than any of the other 3. Ace. pic.twitter.com/G8gvLue8F0
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 19, 2022
If also including the game before these past two, the 2-1 victory over Cádiz when Atletico Madrid had gone down to 10 men, just like they did away at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, Simeone’s side have ended each of their past three games with a one-goal lead and with their backs to the wall, suffering but holding on.
This has to be encouraging for the coach, to see his side withstanding the pressure of Old Trafford or the setback of a red card. Earlier in the season, they may have crumbled, but now they’ve won five games in a row and gone seven undefeated.
That has got to be a concern for Manchester City, not just that their Champions League opponents are in good form but that they’ve rediscovered their old identity. The style of football that Atletico Madrid have been playing over the past few weeks is exactly the style that will worry Guardiola, since it’s similar to the methods that eliminated Bayern in 2015/16.
Simeone and his coaching staff now have the international break to take pause and further cement this mid-season shift in style, before taking it to Manchester on April 5th.
