Atletico Madrid’s Champions League win over Juventus shows why Diego Simeone wants to be their Sir Alex Ferguson
It has been a rollercoaster few weeks for Atltico Madrid.On February third, the Colchoneros travelled to Real Betis with the chance to go just three points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona. Instead, they lost 1-0 to a penalty awarded after Filipe Luis committed a baffling hand-ball. 
3Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone on the touchline against Juventus.The following weekend came the chance for redemption at home against Real Madrid, where a win in front of a packed, rowdy home crowd would have helped Atleti recover and close the gap in the league thanks to results elsewhere. The outcome? They were cut open in a comfortable win for Santiago Solaris visiting side, and fell into third place and a deep depression.So when Spains third club announced just five days later that Diego Simeone would be extending his contract to stay at the Metropolitano until 2022, it came as a huge surprise to many. Rather than cause for optimism, the first sequence of results in the key stage of the season suggested that his magic was fading, and obvious cracks in the defensive stability that has been the foundations of the Simeone era provoked fears for the worst.Was the Atltico icon at risk of becoming an Arsene Wenger-like figure who achieved brilliant, hierarchy-changing things at the start of his reign, only to see the impact steadily and painfully fade away by extending his stay for too long? With that form as the backdrop, more bad news looked sure to follow when one of the favourites for the Champions League came to the Spanish capital. It was tempting to think Cholo had jumped the shark when the home teams starting line-up for the Juve game was announced, featuring an ultra-conservative looking cuatrivote of four central midfielders, veteran Juanfran back at right-back, and Diego Costa, who had been out for several months injured (and barely scored when he wasnt), rushed back into action.How would Costa, who tends to take a while to recover form and his optimal fighting weight at the best of times, have an impact? How would a 34-year-old defender who hadnt even played for three weeks have the legs and be sharp-enough to keep up with a star-studded Juve attack? And wouldnt the Atleti midfield lack the energy and acceleration to trouble a skilled Italian defence?As it turned out, Simeone knew exactly what he was doing. From kick-off his game-plan worked impeccably. Peeling off diagonally whenever Jan Oblak or the defence had the ball at their feet, time after time Costa won aerial battles against Mattia De Sciglio and Leonardo Bonucci, and the presence of four ball-playing central midfielders behind him meant there was always someone to play a quick, cutting past from the resulting knock-on. Only VAR prevented Atleti from having a penalty within half an hour, and only a touch more accuracy prevented Costa from putting them ahead almost instantly after the break.
3Atletico Madrid stars celebrate Diego Godin’s goal against Juventus in the Champions League.It was vintage, old-school Atleti with many of the people who had brought home the La Liga title in 2014 involved. Yet Simeone still had another trick up his sleeve. With Juve tired, he threw on three members of the new guard, ngel Correa, lvaro Morata and Thomas Lemar.Added to Antoine Griezmann, the home team then had four players who have at some point this season featured as one of the two strikers on the pitch. This was no conservative move, and it was as savvy as it was brave. Simeone smelled blood and the trickiness of the reshaped Atleti attacking line-up caused Juventus a number of problems. The 2-0 result at the final whistle could easily have been 4-0 without cause for complaint.The Colchoneros have been struggling for an identity this season, and the successful blending of two approaches against the Serie A champions felt like a watershed moment. A platform upon which they can build, possibly even towards the elusive first Champions League trophy that they would so desperately like to capture at their home stadium in the spring.
3Will Simeone be Atletico’s Arsene Wenger or their Sir Alex Ferguson?When at full time, after creating a raucous atmosphere throughout the clash, that same stadium sang a hair-raising rendition Atletis anthem, it was easy to see why fiercely competitive Simeone is convinced he can get more mileage out of his group of players and his club. Why he wasnt prepared to trade that special connection for the prospect of a blank transfer budget elsewhere, or a clean slate at somewhere like Inter, just yet.By 2022 Simeone will have been Atltico coach for over a decade, an exceptional degree of longevity in modern football. A decade in which he has taken them from teetering dangerously close to relegation, to winning the most unlikely of league titles, and splitting Bara and Madrid in the league table on multiple occasions.Wednesday provided evidence that El Cholo could take them to further glory still, and could yet become Atletis equivalent of Ferguson, rather than their Wenger.
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Also in 2013-14, Atlético finished top of their Champions League group and qualified for the quarter-finals with a 5-1 aggregate win over Milan in the round of 16. This was the first time they had reached the Champions League quarter-finals since 1996-97, when Simeone played for the team.
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