Luis Enrique is an intense, almost frantic character, but it takes a lot for football to genuinely get under his skin. But as he sat before the media on Wednesday night, fury flickering behind his eyes, it was abundantly clear that his opposite number had managed it.
“Inexplicable” and “unjust” were a couple of the choice words he used to describe Paris Saint-Germain’s last-gasp defeat to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid — “robbery” was another, on the more loaded end of the scale.
But for all the suggestions of misfortune, the eye rolls and the shrugs of resignation, this has happened far too often to Simeone’s Champions League opponents for it to be a coincidence. The goals might have come from very little, but the commitment to the defensive system — the collective grittiness of all 16 players involved in this latest smash-and-grab — is an extraordinary feat of management in itself.
“This game showcased what we do well, we have a clear idea” Simeone summarised after the game.
“We’ve been working, building for 12 years, and we won’t deviate from that plan, whether people like it or not.”
(Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP via Getty Images)
Simeone was under no illusions about the challenge that lay ahead, expressing his admiration of PSG’s varied approach play before the game, and outlining the constant movement of their players during the build-up. “We don’t know where they are going to go”, he admitted.
To counter that, the idea was a simple 4-4-2 without the ball, but with a few trademark Simeone instructions. Antoine Griezmann and Julian Alvarez worked exceptionally hard as a strike partnership to stop the ball going into midfield, while Rodrigo de Paul and Pablo Barrios were prepared to chase their midfield counter-parts all across the pitch.
On both flanks, Atletico’s full-backs had support from their wide midfielders, particularly from the manager’s son Giuliano on the right, happy to shuffle across quickly, at times forming a back five to double up on the dangerous Bradley Barcola whenever the Frenchman received the ball in space.
Issues arose when PSG were able to pull off those positional rotations and keep the ball moving quickly, as we saw moments before the opening goal.
As Warren-Zaire Emery ambles forward with the ball in frame one, winger Ousmane Dembele drops into a central position to receive the pass, drawing the attention of both his marker, Javi Galan, and midfielder Conor Gallagher, without a man to pick up.
Amid the hesitation between the two, full-back Achraf Hakimi drifts wide and darts in behind, with both players drawn towards the central run. Zaire-Emery floats the ball over — Atletico out of shape as illustrated in frame two — and Hakimi flashes a dangerous ball across the six-yard box.
The game began to open up from there, as the hosts took the lead after a mix up in possession, but as soon as Atletico found a goal of their own from a quick break, they were keen to shut the contest right back down.
PSG controlled 78.3 per cent of the ball between the equaliser and the half-time whistle, but could only muster three shots with a cumulative expected goals value of 0.17.
Sensing the momentum shift, Atletico took the sting out of the game, forming a back six at times to cover those passes out wide and challenging their opponents to hit through the middle.
It wasn’t a switch that helped the visitors going forward, and there were a few ugly moments in attack as Simeone’s men crawled towards half-time. Gallagher notably played a long pass to no one after half an hour, while Julian Alvarez only managed one touch more than his goalkeeper in the first 45 minutes.
Nonetheless, there was plenty of encouragement in the body language, as players lifted one another through the storm. De Paul was a constant motivator, guiding youngster Barrios and Simeone through the defensive side of the game, while big tackles and forward-thinking passes were met with genuine delight across the pitch.
Shortly after half-time, for example, PSG are moving the ball towards the right with their centre-backs in possession. This time, Hakimi has drifted into midfield while Dembele stays wide, obliging Gallagher to drop back once again.
As we can see, Galan is pointing towards Hakimi on his way to pick up the winger on the touchline.
Galan races over to apply pressure, but individual brilliance from Dembele allows him to skip past and burst towards the penalty area…
…before Gallagher sprints back and makes a vital recovery challenge.
This is a team that has each other’s back, buoyed by the spirit of a manager who can channel the sheer adrenaline of defending like few others in the game.
Even more impressive is the fact that Atletico’s intensity did not drop through five substitutions.
“I liked that we were able to keep generating force” Simeone affirmed, as all of Reinildo, Koke, Rodrigo Riquelme, Angel Correa and Samuel Lino picked up from where their teammates left off.
Despite the instances of extreme pragmatism, this is where Simeone started to take risks. He replaced his son Giuliano — who was so defensively vigilant down the right side — with the more explosive Riquelme, who struggled to double up on Barcola as effectively as the player he replaced.
It left a one-vs-one on the flanks that Barcola exploited, racing past Molina and into the penalty area on 64 minutes before Oblak batted away his powerful drive.
Simeone’s final change was a tell-tale sign of his desire for pace on the counter, and while Samuel Lino was unable to get involved too much, his introduction — for the heroic Connor Gallagher — was symbolic of the gradual risks that Atletico took as the clock ticked down.
Things got very uncomfortable towards the end, and on another day, Simeone might have been punished for his ambition. But as chances went begging at one end, the sneaky feeling that there might be one at the other quietly grew.
A draw would have been vindication enough for Atletico’s approach, but a stoppage-time win was the most extraordinary reward for a performance brimming with character.
It is still not quite clear when Simeone’s era-defining reign at this club will come to an end, but this was a highlight — and very much a product — of the last 12 years of specific and continual progress.
(Header photo: Julian Finney – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)
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