In late February 2012, Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona went to the old Calderon Stadium in Madrid to give a lesson in possession football. Their hosts, Atletico Madrid, had a relatively new manager in Diego Simeone, but already a defined, and effective style under him.
Over the 90 minutes, Guardiola’s team had the ball for close to three-quarters of the time it was in play. Yet they drew just one save from the then Atletico goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois.
Atletico, with their sparse share of possession, won more corners than Barca and drew eight saves from the visiting goalkeeper Victor Valdes. The winners? Barcelona, 2-1, thanks to a late Lionel Messi free-kick, struck while the Atletico defence were still preparing their defensive wall.
The game was Simeone’s 10th in charge of Atletico, his first loss and a strong signpost to how he would organise and inspire Atletico over the next decade, building into European heavyweights and domestic title-contenders a club who previously had a reputation for erratic frailty. There would, over Simeone’s next 561 matches managing the club, be very few further times when an Atletico defensive wall was shabbily put together.
Tuesday’s first leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Manchester City and Atletico will be only the fourth meeting as managers of Guardiola and Simeone. That’s a relatively light head-to-head history given they have been elite coaches for so long.
They are contemporaries, both were high-class central midfielders as players, but in terms of coaching dogmas, they can seem poles apart: Pep the purist’s purist, ‘Cholo’ Simeone the arch-pragmatist.
In any Atletico side of the Simeone era, you expect certain characteristics. Guardiola listed them on Monday. “They avoid risk in the build-up,” he said. “They are aggressive, consistent. They know how to handle this competition: they’ve been in two finals.”
Which is one more than Guardiola, who won two Champions League titles, in 2009 and 2011 with Barcelona, has managed in the 10 years since Simeone took charge of Atletico.
Guardiola keeps being reminded that some people think he has very easily identifiable characteristics in the late stages of the Champions league, too. The City manager spoke sharply to the repeated criticism that, when the high-pressure ties arrive, he ‘overthinks’ his game plan, with unexpected team selections – such as leaving out an anchor midfielder for last season’s final, a 1-0 defeat, against Chelsea.
“In the Champions League, I always overthink new tactics,” he told reporters, speaking with heavy irony. “I overthink and create stupid tactics! So I’ll take inspiration [against Atletico] and do incredible tactics – we’ll play with 12 men.”
The criticism does grate with Guardiola, partly because there’s a long pattern of it. The most admired coach of his generation, the purist of pass-and-move was deemed to have misjudged in picking a back three against Lyon in City’s quarter-final defeat in 2020 and to have sacrificed width in his midfield choices when Liverpool beat City 3-0 in the second leg of the 2018 quarter-final.
Then there was 2016, the last time Simeone’s rugged, resourceful Atletico took on a fluid, enterprising Guardiola side. Bayern Munich, where Guardiola was in his third and last season as coach, commanded possession over the 180 minutes of their semi-final.
Manchester United 0 Atletico Madrid 1 - player ratings
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MANCHESTER UNITED RATINGS: David de Gea 6 Saved from De Paul on 14 minutes. Beaten by a good header from Lodi for Atletico’s opener. Nervously hit a ball out after 51 which invited a shot. EPA -
Diogo Dalot 5 Bright, aggressive start down the right as United attacked. Shot blocked by Gimenez. Even better effort on target after 25. Spun a shot wide after 83. PA -
Harry Maguire 4 Exposed, pulled left and right by opponents. Nervy start to the second half when he overhit a cross, then twisted and played the ball back to De Gea. Some of the crowd cheered when he was substituted. EPA -
Raphael Varane 7 Calm, but work cut out against foes who had a smarter game plan. Header was well saved by Oblak on 77, but it was an awful match for United to play in against a cynical team with a referee who did nothing for the home team. Reuters -
Alex Telles 5 Turned into his man and lost possession on 31. Ball came in for Atletico’s opener from his side, as it had for their disallowed goal. Suspect when defending. Getty -
Fred 7 Replicated a famous move by Real Madrid player Redondo at Old Trafford in a bright United start. Moved around, broke up play, energetic. EPA -
Scott McTominay 5 Atletico won the ball from him to set up their best first half attack. Tough against Koke who started many of Atletico’s attacks. Tough against better players. PA -
Jadon Sancho 5 Blasted a cross over after 59. Not as effective as in recent games. Nowhere near. Ran into opponents too many times. Bought to shine in these games. Didn’t. Reuters -
Bruno Fernandes 5 Crossed to Elanga after 12 and buzzed around behind Ronaldo. Fine shot on 45. Neat free-kick towards the far post on 66, then brought off. Still far from sharp. Getty -
Anthony Elanga 5 United’s first serious effort on goal after 12 and then shot wide. That was as good as it got for the Swede. AFP -
Cristiano Ronaldo 6 Charged up against a team he’s damaged more than any other in his career. Ran back to tackle on 37 and a roar went up. Worked around the area. Tired and couldn’t beat a man in a 76th minute attack. Reuters -
SUBS: Marcus Rashford 5 On for Elanga on 66 in a triple substitution. Gave the ball away after 87 to allow Atleti to counter attack. Getty -
Nemanja Matic 6 On for McTominay on 66. Booked. Carried the ball forward but met a wall of blue shirts. Moved to defence as United threw men forward, with little effect. Reuters -
Paul Pogba 5 On for Fernandes on 66. Couldn’t land a punch on the Spaniards. Getty -
Edinson Cavani 5 On for Fred after 75. Bluster and effort with no end result, like the rest of the players. Getty -
Juan Mata 5 On for Maguire after 83. A rare sight. Tried to find pockets of space. Getty -
ATLETICO MADRID RATINGS: Jan Oblak, 9 – It was a man-of-the-match display from Madrid’s No 1 as his parade of world-class saves won the day for the visitors. Getty -
Stefan Savic, 8 – His outstanding commitment was matched only by the timing he showed with his tackling. Getty -
Jose Gimenez, 8 – Wonderful timing, consistent going forward rarely let anything get past him at Old Trafford. AFP -
Reinildo Mandava, 8 – A string of sublime blocks and challenges served as proof of why Reinildo is so underrated. AFP -
Hector Herrera, 7 – Overly eager at times but had solid enough distribution in the middle of the park. Getty -
Marcos Llorente, 7 – Worked a lot harder in the second half to make up for a questionable first 45 minutes down the flank. AFP -
Rodrigo De Paul, 8 – Played a lovely role in the goal, was physical from the first minute, regularly stole the ball and came close to scoring in the opening quarter-of-an-hour. AFP -
Koke, 7 – Good passing, released the ball well and had the kind of movement required for a match of this pace. AP -
Renan Lodi, 8 – Made up for a slow start to proceedings with a well-timed header to win the tie for the visitors. PA -
Antoine Griezmann, 5 – Was absent throughout the course of the game and didn’t bring much to his team’s attack. AFP -
Joao Felix, 7 – Provided a great cross for the winner to cancel out what was a fairly uninspiring yet gutsy performance. PA -
SUB: Geoffrey Kondogbia, N/A – Spooned the ball over the bar and ultimately didn’t do a whole lot to assist his side in the last 10 minutes. Getty -
SUB: Felipe, N/A – Barely got the chance to get going but managed to help Atletico edge over the finish line. Reuters -
SUB: Angel Correa, N/A – Helped to kill some time in the final third in what proved to be a relatively brief cameo. AFP
But Guardiola had raised eyebrows by leaving Thomas Muller on the bench for the Madrid leg, where Atletico snatched an early lead. For all their domination after that, the purists could not break the pragmatists. It finished 2-2 on aggregate, Atletico reaching their second final within three years on the away goals rule.
They are, like City, defending domestic champions, but, unlike City, who lead the Premier League table, Atletico are out of realistic contention to add a third Liga title of the Simeone era this time round.
For stretches of the autumn and winter, they lost their traditional ruggedness, although a run of eight games unbeaten, with victories in seven of them, is a strong record to bring to Manchester, where they last month eliminated United in the last-16 phase, winning 1-0 at Old Trafford. “We turned the situation around in the last two months,” said Koke, the Atletico captain.
Simeone will be without central defender Jose Maria Gimenez, who limped off the pitch late in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Alaves, while Yannick Carrasco serves the last match of a three-game suspension. Carrasco was one of a trio of Atletico players sent-off in the course of a difficult group stage. For City, Kyle Walker is also serving a ban, and Ruben Dias misses out due to injury.
Burnley 0 Manchester City 2 - in pictures
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Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's first goal in the 2p-0 win at Burnley. Getty -
Kevin De Bruyne scores the first goal past Nick Pope. Getty -
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola hugs Ilkay Gundogan after the match. AP -
Gundogan celebrates after scoring the second goal. AP -
Gundogan scores. AP -
Burnley manager Sean Dyche and Pep Guardiola shake hands after the match. EPA
