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TOThe tlético Madrid returned to its origins but this team is not that and the old plan did not materialize. At the Bucharest stadium, where he won his first trophy with Diego Simeone in 2012, at home 2,500 kilometers east of the Metropolitano, one goal took precedence to the detriment of all others: not to concede. Once it could have worked and maybe here it could have, but it didn’t work and that wasn’t entirely surprising. With 20 minutes to go, Olivier Giroud sent a superb header past Jan Oblak. “The game was decided on a detail,” said Koke Resurrection.
Some detail. And it went deeper than that. When this match ended, it was difficult to avoid the conclusion that Chelsea had gotten what they deserved and even more difficult to avoid the conclusion that Atlético did too; that this was not just a detail, it was a design. Atlético had invited him, the lack of ambition hurt them. At the final whistle, they had failed to get a shot on goal. For too long, it had seemed as if they weren’t really trying. When they did, it was too late: the damage had already been done.
It’s not over, of course, Koke is quick to insist: “Atlético always get back up.” But Atlético have never gone beyond a European tie after losing 1-0 in the first leg.
When Simeone named his lineup, he seemed reasonably offensive. Four, not five, in the back. Saúl and Koke, instead of Geoffrey Kondogbia in the middle. Thomas Lemar on the wing. João Felix Y Angel Correa. Momentarily they approached Chelsea as well, Saúl nearly catching up with Édouard Mendy, Luis Suárez thinking and beating Antonio Rüdiger and Marcos Alonso for an early chance for Lemar to slide and Correa almost finding Suárez in the six yard area. Flashes of “vertigo” Simeone called them, brief glimpses of the transitions he had expected.
Over time, however, shyness came, the initiative yielded to Chelsea. The question before the game had been if Atlético would play with four or five behind; As it turned out, there were more like six, lined up along the edge of the area, another three just ahead. Suarez was largely a solitary figure without the legs to go long, and he even flopped down often. Felix barely saw the ball. That pattern emerged early and by the second half it was already irreversible. Chelsea looked towards Oblak’s goal; Atlético looked only at the clock.
After the game, Simeone was asked if his team had lacked courage. “No, I don’t think so,” he replied. On television, surprise was expressed at how deep Atlético had played, that they hadn’t pressed Chelsea more often, especially since in those brief moments when they did it seemed like a plan that could work. Simeone replied: “What did you expect?”
Well, quite. This is in their character, they knew. As he pointed out: “We always want organization, a strong bloc.” Besides, there was a meaning in the thought, other reasons. Fourteen players have had Covid, and so has he, and there have been injuries and suspensions, fatigue. Since Kieran Trippier’s suspension, they have played five different right-backs. Here it was their best midfielder Marcos Llorente who supplemented again, and Simeone knows that it costs them offensively. Yannick Carrasco was absent. Then there’s the fact that the away goals rule prioritizes not conceding at home. And this wasn’t even in his actual home, perhaps urging even more caution.
In any case, it has often served them well. Last year a 1-0 at the Metropolitano was the platform from which they knocked out Liverpool. When they eliminated Chelsea in 2014, it was after a 0-0 at the Calderón. It’s something they’re good at.
Or is that it? And should it be? Nine years have passed since Atlético won the Europa League in Bucharest. It was Simeone’s first season, having taken over with the team four points from relegation, an extraordinary achievement that marked the beginning of a radical change. A league and two Champions League finals are among what has followed. There has been a great institutional leap, an increase in demands. Countless players have been and gone. Of the team that won that final, only Koke remains, and he was a 20-year-old who entered in the 90th minute.
The team is different now. Especially this season. This league-leading team is supposed to have another identity. They do it has another identity, in fact. Or it did until Tuesday night, when there was a feeling of regression, that they were going back to their origins, an identity they had passed from. This Atlético had more possession, played higher, scored more goals. Suárez brought them closer to the rival area. This was a team that, while some values remain eternal and unchanging, attacked. One that could have attacked Chelsea, but instead seemed to take in their inferiority.
Here a deeper question reappeared, posed with growing urgency and fatalism: is there something wrong with Spanish football? It may be premature, unnecessarily alarmist, but after Barcelona, Sevilla and Atlético lost the first leg of their Champions League qualifiers and Real Sociedad conceded four to Manchester United in the Europa League, will this be the one? final? If the best team in La Liga took that approach against the fifth team in the Premier League, is there a problem?
More immediately, was it the best plan? Yes, indeed, it was the plan, not a product of the performance of his opponents. And are Atlético’s problems deeper? Was this the best way to remedy them? They had chosen to protect themselves when maybe that’s not what they’re made for anymore. They had tried to do something that they seemed less prepared for now: This was the eighth game in a row they have conceded.
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There is always an element of the short blanket syndrome, and the coach could be forgiven for believing that his decision to pull her to her feet was 20 minutes away from being justified. He was not wrong when he said: “There were very few opportunities for both teams.” Not that Oblak made a catalog of amazing saves.
But as Simeone said: “What could have been, what could have happened, now doesn’t help.” What did happen was that they were defeated again, losing two games in a row for the second time to Simeone. They have dropped more points in 12 days than in the rest of the season combined. Atlético had won one in four; Only on rare occasions did they seem determined to make two out of five, the tie they were looking for turned into a defeat and forced them to come up with another plan for the second leg.
“We will go there to win,” Koke said. “No choice”.
