Monday, December 8, 2025, 16:15
Atlético’s duel against PSV is not just a game: it is a thermometer. A maturity test to find out if Simeone’s team are capable of transferring their dominant version to highly demanding scenarios or if they continue to be an average team when they leave the shelter of their people. So far this year he has not achieved it in the four big events he has had at Anfield, at the Emirates Stadium, at the Camp Nou and at San Mamés. In all of them he came out with a defeat and with bad feelings. Eindhoven awaits with the high demands of a team that has not lost for almost three months – the last defeat was in mid-September against Union St. Gilloise – and Atlético must decide what temperature it wants to show in Europe to take a breath and get its head out or continue in intensive care.
Atlético will have to do things very well if they want to get their hands on a PSV that not only rules firmly in the Eredivisie, but has also turned the Philips Stadion into a visit to the dentist. Bad news for the rojiblancos whose competitive capacity away from the Metropolitano has not yet found the right temperature. In the Champions League they have lost their two away games and in the League, the last two games have ruined what they had achieved in their stadium in the month of November. Their reliability as a visitor (two wins in the last ten outings) contrasts with their power at home with plenty of wins in the last ten games. Which Atlético we will see in Eindhoven will be decisive in knowing where the balance of the match tips.
Added to the equation are the important absences already known of Marcos Llorente, Álex Baena and José María Giménez, to which is added Clément Lenglet, who suffered a muscle contracture in the last league match against Athletic. The only good news to put in your mouth is the return of Johnny Cardoso to the squad, although it will be difficult for him to start from the beginning. With this panorama, Simeone will have to plant a team that competes with continuity, is solid in foreign territory and finds the goal that eludes him away from Madrid. All you have to do is see that offensive production away from the Metropolitano has plummeted. Of the attacking men, only Julián Álvarez has scored away from home – and the goal was in the month of August -, while Griezmann, Sorloth and Raspadori still have not made their debut as visitors.
“For me everything happens through forcefulness,” Diego Simeone insisted like a mantra in the preview. «The team is playing good games. Against Betis we scored early… Against Getafe we had chances and we didn’t score them and we reached the 80th minute tight… Teams away from home suffer,” he argued to explain the difficulties his team is encountering when traveling.
The opposite poles
Unlike Atlético, PSV does not suffer creative crises or lack of goals: dynamism from the outside, arrival on the second line and offensive production that forces the opponent to defend on permanent alert. Something that Simeone knows well, who did not hesitate to praise his rival, but who stuck out his fang when asked about the difference in football styles between PSV and Atlético. “The poles have to exist, otherwise we would all live in the same place,” argued the Argentine coach.
However, you just have to see that in the last five games the Dutch team has scored 15 goals – including four against Liverpool at Anfield – and has only conceded three goals. Numbers that force the red and white team to come out with all five senses to the Philips Stadion if they want to score in a match that will serve as a thermometer to test their state of health in Europe.
Probable lineups
PSV: Kovar, Sergiño Dest, Schouten, Gasiorowski, Salah-Eddine, Wanner, Guus Til, Veerman, Dennis Man, Ricardo Pepi and Saibari.
Atlético: Oblak, Molina, Pubill, Hancko, Ruggeri, Koke, Barrios, Giuliano, Nico González, Griezmann and Julián Álvarez.
Referee: Michael Oliver (England).
Time: 9:00 p.m. Stadium: Philips Stadium.
TV: Movistar Champions League 2.
