As the European club football season enters the final straight, much of the focus has been on Jurgen Klopp’s shock decision to leave Liverpool, and the end of a rivalry with Pep Guardiola that has defined modern football. It was almost fitting that the last league meeting between the two, on Sunday, was a classic that ended with honours even between Liverpool and Manchester City.
Klopp would have been in charge at Anfield nearly nine years by the time he departs in May. Guardiola’s present contract, which expires in 2025, will see him complete nine seasons with City. Both men are outliers in a hire-and-fire business where precious few elite-level managers even see a fourth season.
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But even as their fans fervently debate the merits of Klopp’s heavy-metal football and Guardiola’s control-heavy methods, there is a third coach out there who has reached as many Champions League finals as Guardiola has done with City. Diego ‘El Cholo’ Simeone took charge at the old Vicente Calderon just before Christmas in 2011. What he has done since, before and after the move to the swanky Metropolitano Stadium, is little short of a miracle.
When Simeone took charge, Atletico hadn’t finished in the top three in Spain since Antic had led a side that included Argentina to a league-and-Copa del Rey double in 1995-96. They had been relegated in 1999-2000 and had long since lapsed into the role of Real’s country cousins.
In his 11 full seasons as coach at the club he played for with distinction, Simeone’s Atleti have not once finished outside the Top 3. That might finally happen this season, with the Rojiblancos six points adrift of Barcelona in third, but a penalty shootout victory over Inter Milan, runaway Serie A leaders, in the last 16 of the Champions League once again shone a light on Simeone’s incredible powers of motivation.
As Jan Oblak pulled off a couple of stunning penalty saves, Simeone was on the touchline whipping the crowd into a frenzy, dressed all in black as always. Despite going 2-0 behind on aggregate, his players found the reserves of character to take the game into extra-time and eventually win it.
And you sense it’s the Champions League obsession that keeps Simeone going. Having lost to Bayern Munich in a replay in the 1974 final, Atletico needed 40 years to get to another. They should have won it too, but for Sergio Ramos’s last-gasp header two minutes and 48 seconds into time added on after the 90. Atleti crumbled in extra-time, and there was more heartache two years later against their bitter rivals, with Real prevailing on penalties in the 2016 final.
Given how Real and Barcelona have destroyed La Liga with systematic financial doping over the past two decades, Simeone’s achievements are nothing short of stunning. To win two La Liga crowns was like climbing Mount Everest twice without oxygen, and there have been two Europa League titles as well for good measure. Almost every season, he has seen stars depart for bigger pay cheques elsewhere, but a core of players led by Koke continue to scrap for the biggest honours every campaign.
Atleti will be one of three teams in the Champions League’s last eight that have yet to win it – Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal are the others. Real, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have 25 trophies between them, while City and Borussia Dortmund have won it once. Even with the increased scrutiny of their ‘creative accounting’, City and Guardiola remain firm favourites to retain their title. But after the addition of Jude Bellingham, the world’s best young player, Real will no longer be the soft touch they were in last season’s semifinal.
For all of Atletico’s tenacity and the cascading support from Simeone’s adoring fans, it’s hard to look beyond those two teams ahead of the draw on Friday.
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