Team thrives as Simeone works wonders
Print Edition
With a 100 percent record in the Champions League and 11 wins from 12 games in La Liga, Atletico Madrid has been one of the revelations of European football this season.
A 4-0 mauling of Austria Vienna on Wednesday meant Atletico joined holder Bayern Munich as the only sides to win all four of their group games and ensured passage into the last-16 on its return to the Champions League for the first time in four years.
Diego Simeone’s men also split traditional powerhouses Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga, a point behind the Catalans and five ahead of their city rivals.
However, the high they are currently riding is no flash in the pan. Since Simeone’s arrival at the club in December 2011, the man who was a star player the last time Atletico won the league back in 1995/96, has completely turned around what was an underachieving sleeping giant.
Whilst top talents like Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan came and went from the Vicente Calderon, the overall organization of the club and lack of balance on the field prevented it from ever truly punching its weight over the past decade.
Simeone’s arrival brought about an instant change in fortunes. In his first six months in charge the team shot up the table to just miss out on Champions League football on the final day of the season and stormed to the Europa League by winning every game in the knockout stage.
That was followed by more silverware as it hammered Chelsea 4-1 in the European Super Cup thanks to a Radamel Falcao hat-trick and, powered by the Colombian, it started last season in similar fashion winning 11 of its opening 13 games before being defeated, as it always did, to Real in the Madrid derby.
Simeone’s powers of motivation and tactical nous even managed to end that curse though, as Atletico eventually beat Real for the first time in 14 years at the best possible time, in the best possible scenario. A Copa del Rey final at the Santiago Bernabeu, 40,000 Atleti fans there to witness the team break down the biggest psychological barrier on enemy territory.
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