Champions League: Atletico Madrid are favourites to win, their defensive masterclass will have others scared
After knocking out Barcelona, no one will want to face Diego Simeone's Atletico side
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Your support makes all the difference.I would probably make Atletico Madrid favourites to win the Champions League now after their defensive masterclass knocked Barcelona out last night. Regular readers will know what an admirer I am of what Diego Simeone has done there, and I am certain that Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City will all be hoping to avoid Atletico, more than anyone else, in the draw for the semi-finals tomorrow.
Everyone knows how dangerous Barcelona are but last night Atletico shut them down brilliantly. Barcelona like to play out from the back but Atletico squeezed them with their front five players: Antoine Griezmann, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, Koke, Saul Niguez and Gabi.
They pushed onto the Barcelona back four, and Sergio Busquets, preventing them from playing out and forcing them to go long. But when Barcelona did go long Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez could not win the ball.
There were times when Barcelona would break through that initial press, but when that happened every Atletico player apart from Griezmann would drop in behind the ball. They defended in such a compact 4-5-1 that Barcelona could not create chances, and once they were 1-0 up they defended even deeper. That is why they have 15 clean sheets from 23 home games this season.
As the game went on, Messi had to drop deeper and deeper for the ball, almost trying to play in the Xavi role, but Atletico left-back Felipe Luis could get on top of him. Juanfran did the same to Neymar on the other side. And that left Suarez isolated and frustrated up front for Barcelona. Crucially, they allowed Messi, Suarez or Neymar to turn and get a one-on-one.
The pace of Griezmann and Carrasco – who are quicker than Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano – meant that Atletico were always dangerous on the break and that is how they scored their second goal. It was a fully deserved victory and now they can go one step further than they did in 2014.
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