“If you only win once in the group stage, then you don’t deserve anything, be it qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League or the Europa League,” said Antoine Griezmann on UEFA’s official website. Atlético Madrid, the top team that is just a loser. Maybe this sentence represents Atletico Madrid’s journey in taking part in the most prestigious league on the blue continent. A team filled with classy players, but instead became dregs.
Being the most seeded team in Group B of the UEFA Champions League, it turned out that Atletico showed a performance that was very far from expectations. Read also: Defeat Napoli, Salah tops the list of top scorers even though Liverpool failed to win the group. Even though they managed to get full points in the opening match during a narrow 2-1 win over FC Porto, it didn’t make the Spanish capital club consistently win points.
Even the victory in the inaugural match was the first and last victory for Atletico Madrid. Antoine Griezmann cs is too weak in away matches. Which of the 3 matches they have played, none of them have won. After being held to a draw at Bayern Leverkusen, they lost to Club Brugge and Porto in their last group stage match.
If Atletico can beat Porto in the last match or at least get one point, at least Griezman and the rest of the squad can at least compete in the European League. However, Atletico gave up on Porto and made the opportunity to compete in Europe’s second tier aground. The reason is, in the other match Leverkusen managed to hold Club Brugge to a draw while making the points from Atletico and Leverkusen the same.
This fact automatically passes Bayern Leverkusen into the Europa League which is superior in head to head. Atletico was only able to end the adventure in the champions league this season only with caretaker status. This creates a dark record for the coach, Diego Simeone. During his time as a tactician for the club from the Spanish capital for about a decade, this is the first time Atletico have stopped in the group phase with the status of caretaker.
Atetico ends the competition with caretaker status/getty imagee
Simeone’s best achievement is 2 times bringing Atletico Madrid to the Champions League Final in the 2013/2014 and 2015/2016 seasons.
Even though they haven’t tasted the title of the most elite inter-club league in the Blue Continent, at least it’s better than the current condition. Including in the La Liga event. The performance of Atletico so far is still inconsistent, even though Atletico are currently in third place. However, the distance of points with Real Madrid and Barcelona is far adrift. So it’s difficult for Atletico to be able to win the La Liga title this season.
Maybe the only hope of athletico is the Copa Del Rey if they can make the most of it, although it won’t be easy either. Actually what is wrong with Atlético? The most visible is the negative football scheme applied by Diego Simeone. It is common knowledge that the Argentine tactician often chooses to play defensively.
In fact, the Atletico Madrid squad is filled with attacking type players. So that the pattern of play that tends to be defensive makes the club based at the Wanda Metropolitano undeveloped and too easy for opponents to read. Inhabited by quality players such as Antoine Griezmann, Joao Felix, Yanick Carrasco, and Alvaro Morata becomes useless. Because what Simeone shows is just a pretty boring survival game scheme.
If Atlético continues like that this season, it is certain that there will not be any trophies that come to the Wanda Metropolitano and are even threatened with not being able to compete in the Champions League next season. Because the fight for the third and fourth positions in LaLiga is tighter than the fight for the first place between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
ASL
