Simeone also stopped the fifth

The dream of the Champions League for Atlético must continue waiting, at least, one more year. Madrid is the team that has caused the European awakening of the Colchonera parish, six white crosses already after the cruel … outcome of the eighth last Wednesday. In five of those matches, with Simeone on the rojiblanco bench. And in all of them, the rojiblanco team competed, put the king of Europe against the ropes and even gave the feeling of being superior (or being able to be), but also in all of them he paid the starts of calm or conservatism of his coach, who never yielded to the temptation to take the brake with the score in favor or matched when the situation well seemed to demand a step forward. The excess of Wednesday, not looking for the second goal after achieving the first, with Madrid Grogui, ended up taking its toll.

It has already passed in the first continental encounter between the coach and the meringues, the Lisbon final: Atlético met Godín’s goal in the first half and his mission in the rest of the match was to protect his rent. A plan that was close to getting to fruition until the appearance of Ramos with the defeated clock. A year later, in the quarterfinals, the double value of the goals away from home took the rojiblancos to protect the 0-0 in the Calderón to decide the tie in the Bernabéu, where he barely managed to disturb and the expulsion of Arda Turan and the last goal of Chicharito made the rest.

Milan left one of the few but greater reproaches towards the Cholist trajectory, in which in the absence of ten minutes Carrasco matched the goal of Ramos. Despite the moral and physical superiority that Atlético transmitted, he chose to throw the handbrake and not run into search of the comeback. Madrid, delighted, endured to the penalties, where Juanfran’s ruling gave him the eleventh. A campaign later, this time in the semifinals, faced the mission almost impossible to overcome three goals apart. Saúl and Griezmann reduced the disadvantage to a single goal in a quarter of an hour. With the whites staggering, the vertigo entered the bench and advocated asking calm and reducing the revolutions. Valle that took advantage of Benzema to lift Madrid with an unforgettable maneuver.

Last Wednesday, calm appeared again. 27 seconds took Atlético to match the tie, but instead of taking advantage of its time to search the second, Simeone demanded tranquility from the band and the rojiblanco team gave the ball and the ground to Madrid. An understandable decision with the passage of the minutes to protect themselves from white transitions, but debatable in the first game moments when those of Ancelotti had neither assimilated Gallagher’s coup. The Argentine coach, still, remains convinced that this calm, playing that Madrid does not play instead of attacking him, is the perfect plan: “Surely they will remember us.”

Session boundary

• Access to premium content is open by courtesy of the establishment where you are, but right now there are too many users connected at the same time. Please try it after a few minutes.

Try again

You have exceeded the session limit

• You can only have three sessions initiated at the same time. We have closed the oldest session to continue sailing without limits in the rest.

Keep sailing