Analysis
Atlético is already heating up the return leg, annoyed that the Catalan coach implicitly associated the term “prehistory” with Simeone’s model
Surely in the coaching schools they took good note of what happened on Tuesday at the Etihad and not a few will define it as a huge tactical battle, but for the average fan the vaunted duel of styles between Manchester City and Atlético was an ordeal that It doesn’t leave Pep Guardiola, champion of touch and possession, or especially Cholo Simeone, an emblem of results based on uncompromising defense and living off other people’s mistakes, in a very good place.
The Manichean debate about what is worth or not in football will last at least another week, but what the hangover of the first round has done, resolved with a goal from Kevin de Bryune in the only defensive mismatch of the mattresses, is to unmask the Catalan and Argentine coach, the best paid in the world. After the clash, both took off their masks and showed that the compliments that were dedicated in the previous one were more like a pose.
Not going just beyond the center of the field, turning the rival goalkeeper into a luxury spectator and forcing Antoine Griezmann or Marcos Llorente to sprint almost 80 meters in counterattack attempts, is an attack on Atlético. As much as his coach likes the secondary role and that City is, in his opinion, “the best team in the world”, playing with a goalkeeper, two lines of five and no reference striker does not fit with a squad to the one that Joao Félix or Griezmann belong to. And enjoying 70.5% ball possession and making 627 passes, but shooting only twice on goal in 90 minutes, also shows that the modern ‘citizens’ lacked depth, variation, balance, quickness and inspiration.
“If the choral attack is valued, the strong and shameless defense must also be valued,” Cholo launched as an allegation after falling by the minimum. He insisted on that motto of “defending without shame” that he has used since his team hit rock bottom against Levante, while Guardiola came to say that Atlético’s approach was cavernous. «We suspected that they would play 5-3-2, but then they have adjusted and put Griezmann on the far right and Joao on the left and they have been placed with two lines of five. In prehistory, today and in 100,000 years, attacking against five and five is very difficult. There is no space, “the City coach snapped.
Koke responds to Pep
An argument that differs from the flowers that the man from Santpedor distributed in the previous one, when he denied that the rojiblancos were so defensive and praised their virtue of adapting to various scenarios. And a term that has felt very bad in the Madrid expedition. Koke took advantage of it yesterday to start heating up the second leg. «In love with your story since prehistory. Proud to be from Atleti,” the captain wrote on social media. Due to the tightness of the result and the tiring issue of the styles, the return is expected to be of high tension in a packed Wanda.
Guardiola and Cholo cannot deny that they are mired and that they speak antagonistic languages. When De Bruyne unsealed Atlético, Pep couldn’t hide it. He clenched his fists and threw a bottle of water in anger. He knows that in his sixth season at City, a nouveau riche thanks to Abu Dhabi’s petrodollars, the orejona is already demanded of him. He has an extraordinary squad, but his best record was last year’s final, lost to Chelsea. In his three years at Bayern, he did not meet his goal either and always fell in the semifinals, precisely against three Spanish clubs: Real Madrid (0-5 on aggregate), Barcelona and Atlético del Cholo in 2016 (on aggregate 2-2, siege in Munich and a colossal, rather miraculous performance by Oblak).
In the documentary about Cholo, their basic differences when it comes to understanding this game were made very clear. Guardiola himself tells there that the Argentine visited him at Barça, analyzed his training sessions, and praised his virtues for dominance, touch and high pressure, but added that he would never do it in his team because it is a formula that he does not feel .
