On Wednesday evening, the Wanda Metropolitano witnessed a clash between two teams whose seasons can be somewhat saved by their performances on the European stage: Atlético Madrid hosted Manchester United.
Atlético seem far from their best days. Los Colchoneros have won only four of their last fourteen Champions League games, recording four draws and six losses, while Simeone’s men were defeated the most times among the teams that reached the knockout rounds since the 2020/21 season. They have lost their last four outings – two at home – against English teams in the Champions League, doubling the amount of losses they have suffered from their previous twelve (four wins, six losses), and haven’t won at home in the Champions League since October.
Dipping in both the individual and team statistics that once made them a much-feared team, Simeone’s men sit fifth in La Liga.
Grouped up with English powerhouses Liverpool, Porto and AC Milan in this year’s group of death, Atleti managed to get their ticket to the knock-out rounds of the Champions League in their final game of the group stage by beating nine-man Porto.
The offensive side of the game was never the strongest aspect of Simeone’s gameplan, but the defence that led Atletico to the top of the European game seems shaky at best too.
Relying heavily on Antoine Griezmann, as they always did, in this European Campaign, with the Frenchman scoring four out of the seven goals they managed in the group stage, a dark cloud seems to be forming over Simeone’s men.
They were forced to face their long-lost nemesis, who brought several of their European campaigns to an end. Ralf Rangnick is in danger of being the first man not to register a win in his first two European games in charge of Manchester United, and the German’s most dangerous and reliable weapon seems to be Cristiano Ronaldo. Scoring 25 goals in his 35 appearances against Atlético Madrid, Ronaldo also managed four hat-tricks, two of them in the Champions League, where the Portuguese is the only man to score two hat-tricks against a single club in the competition.
The Madrid side was knocked out of the Champions League by the teams that Ronaldo played for on five different occasions. Breaking their hearts in 14/15 and 16/17 seasons with their bitter rivals Real Madrid, Ronaldo also managed a spectacular hat-trick against them in 18/19 in the colours of Juventus, when Atlético was confidently leading The Old Lady of Italian football by two goals after after the first leg.
The biggest upsets any team in the world could experience, also came at the hands of Ronaldo. The only player to eliminate a team at every stage of the Champions League knock-out rounds, Ronaldo managed to beat Atlético not once but twice in the competition’s final. In the 2014 final defeat came to Atletico via an extra-time trashing, while in 2016 it was the penalty shoot-out that decided Real Madrid’s victory over their city rivals.
With English teams yet to concede a goal in the first legs of the round of sixteen – Chelsea beating Lille, Liverpool beating Inter by two goals, City thrashing Sporting 5-0 and Manchester United being on the up after a dip of form – Atlético seem to have a lot on their hands.
Simeone made three changes to the side that kept a clean sheet and won by three goals at Osasuna away. Club captain Koke was out injured, Yannick Carrasco was also out with a suspension and Luis Suarez was rested; Geoffrey Kondogbia, Renan Lodi and Angel Correa were called to fill in the spots available.
Ralf Rangnick also made three changes to the line-up that beat Leeds away in a goal-fest. Raphaël Varane was given his spot back in the starting line-up at the expense of Aaron Wan Bissaka, forcing Victor Lindelöf to play at right-back, while Jesse Lingard was brought to the bench to make way for Marcus Rashford, and Fred filled in for Scott McTominay, out with an illness.
Playing a high defensive line and forcing the opposition to play quickly is not their strongest point, but due to Manchester United’s current situation, Atlético tried to. Simeone’s dropping of his favoured 4-4-2 for the sake of a more stable and confident 5-3-2 were easily seen during the course of the game. The wing-backs, with the duties of marking Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho respectively, caused transformations in Atlético’s defensive shape.
With Renan Lodi’s and Sime Vrsaljko’s appointments to follow Manchester United wingers into deeper positions resulted in Atleti’s transformation from a 5-3-2 to a 3-5-2, or even sometimes a 4-4-2.
When both Rashford and Sancho dropped deeper to get involved in the build-up, both Vrsaljko and Lodi followed, causing their three central midfielders to play narrower, creating a shape of 3-5-2.
To maintain their narrow lines and not to allow the opposition to stretch his defence, Simeone had to find a solution to the asymmetrical defensive shape that could be created by the movements of the dynamic winger duo, and even sometimes Cristiano Ronaldo. So when one of Sancho or Rashford wanted to play deeper, the wing-back on the respective side pushed higher, while the other remained deeper, essentially creating a 4-4-2.
When Rashford dropped deeper, Lodi followed him, pushing Marcos Llorente wide and forming a four-man midfield line defensively.
When Sancho did the same, Vrsaljko followed and the same events followed, this time with Héctor Herrera pushing wider.
United’s plan of beating Atletico’s questionable high line with the sufficient man power was easy to detect. Rangnick must have decided that even Simeone is likely to play a high defensive line against his struggling side, so the German tried to overrun the Atlético press.
Sometimes the unnatural right-back Lindelöf joined Varane and Harry Maguire to form a three-man backline to help Manchester United play out.
And on some occasions, when Lindelöf behaved as a full-back, Fred was more than willing to drop between the centre-for the same reason.
But neither way seem to work for The Red Devils, seeing Atlético Madrid winning the ball over and over again and taking control of the opening half.
That control resulted in an early goal from the Madrid side, where, in the seventh minute, Renan Lodi picked up the spoils of a corner kick and then crossed brilliantly from the left hand side. The ball was redirected into United’s goal with a terrific flying header by a free João Félix, due to a marking mistake by Maguire.
After the goal both teams were stuck in a stalemate. For a long time the only significant action in the game was Fred’s booking due to his challenge on Correa.
Nevertheless, Atleti were on the front foot. In the 28th minute, Renan Lodi once again burst forward and crossed well, but Félix was unable to do the spectacular – his half volley with his weaker foot flying way above the goal.
The 31st minute brought United’s lowest moment of the 90 minutes, when David de Gea’s attempt at starting the game quickly from a goal kick led to a miscommunication between the Spaniard and Varane. Atleti smelled blood and pressed, and they were rewarded with a free kick on the edge of the box, when Varane gave the ball away and committed a foul.
Although the free-kick didn’t turn into any kind of end product, two minutes later Renan Lodi once again penetrated Manchester United through the left flank with a forward run, found by Herrera with a diagonal pass. Lodi controlled brilliantly only to hit the side netting.
Manchester United looked desperate to conjure up anything offensively but failed. The frustration seemed to take its toll on the players, when Ronaldo, who completed the first half with one touch in United’s penalty area and zero in Atlético’s, was visibly frustrated after back-to-back cross attempts by Lindelöf, Luke Shaw and Rashford all went past the penalty box, where Ronaldo was the only man waiting.
In the last minute of regular time in the first half, Atleti caught Manchester United again with an organised set-piece. Lodi was given the permission to cross freely again and found Vrsaljko with a deflection from Bruno Fernandes, but Vrsaljko was unable to tap it in at the far post, heading the ball into Lindelöf’s face during their duel.
There came the end of the first half which Atlético dominated. Manchester United weren’t able to register a single shot on target, and Geoffrey Kondogbia made the same amount of tackles as the three-man Manchester United midfield combined, matching them with four.
The second half’s only significant action for its first twenty minutes were the bookings of Shaw, Lindelöf and Rashford for United and Reinildo for Atlético Madrid.
In the 66th minute, Rangnick decided that his team’s structure and personnel weren’t enough to ask questions of Atleti, so he made his first involvement into the game, subbing in Aaron Wan Bissaka, Nemanja Matic and Alex Telles at the expense of Victor Lindelöf, Paul Pogba and Luke Shaw.
These changes in personnel also resulted in tactical changes: Nemanja Matic kind of took Fred’s role, pushing the Brazilian up the pitch;, while Rashford and Sancho switched wings, as they did throughout the game, to mix it up.
With Atleti willing to drop their high line and accept playing more in their half, Matic’s introduction was a fresh breath of air for United. The Serbian’s ability to play deep and help his team to progress into the opposition’s half helped United conjure anything positive offensively for the first time in the game.
Yet they were unable to create anything significant. Even so, Simeone felt forced to make a move in the 75th minute, taking off his best performers Félix and Renan Lodi for the services of Griezmann and Thomas Lemar. Rangnick also didn’t miss the opportunity to intervene in the game once again, by subbing off Rashford, who is performing at his worst this season, and subbing in his most favoured player, youngster Anthony Elanga. In the 77th minute Llorente’s physical play was punished with a yellow card, due to his challenge on Telles.
A free kick from the edge of the box, with Cristiano Ronaldo ready to shoot, is a scary sight, but the Portuguese’s ability to shoot from any part of the pitch has now been heavily degraded by injuries. Nevertheless, the tension he created inside the stadium just by simply standing in front of the ball was noticeable and the Wanda Metropolitano finally roared its loudest when he put the free kick high and wide in the 78th minute.
But two minutes later a drop in the concentration levels of Atletico proved very costly. Manchester United’s players, who at this point still weren’t able to register a single shot on target, passed the ball quickly in their own half with one touch. Fernandes ran into space with the ball and then found newly-introduced youngster Elanga with a perfectly-weighted through ball. Reinildo failed in his attempt to intercept and the 19 year-old was left one-on-one with Jan Oblak. His shot didn’t look like the cleanest of strikes at first, but, having the worst season of his career, Oblak’s terrible positioning let the ball pass through him into the low far corner, United equalising.
In the 82nd minute, Sancho was subbed off for the services of Lingard and one minute later Alex Telles was booked for getting back at Llorente for his challenge five minutes prior.
The 87th minute brought an Atlético corner, where Los Colchoneros were denied again by the post. Griezmann picked up the ball from Llorente, who tried to take on United’s crowded defence from the spoils of that corner, at the edge of the six yard box. He tried to find the far corner with his favoured left foot but failed to do so, his shot deflecting off the crossbar.
Another chance came to Manchester United in the last minute of the game, where, in the fourth minute of additional time, Kondogbia, who didn’t set a foot wrong during the rest of the game, lost the ball in his defensive third to Elanga. Lingard shot the ball without any hesitation, forcing Oblak to make his first and only save of the game.
Throughout the game, Atlético seemed to be on the front foot and had the edge over the visitors, but they were hesitant, wasteful and sometimes unlucky in some contexts. Manchester United, after this 90 minutes, were expected to travel back to The Theatre of Dreams with a mountain to climb due to their away leg performance, but the emerging star of the Rangnick era, Anthony Elanga, was able to bring them level, arguably giving them the advantage with still another 90 minutes to play.
The return leg at Old Trafford will carry these storylines too, with a significant addition, caused by the likely appearance of Luis Suarez. Not having the brightest of records against Manchester United from his time at Liverpool, the Uruguayan is still one of the finest strikers that world football has to offer and surely his performances will be decisive on determining the outcome of this round.
Also De Gea, having come up through the ranks of Atlético, didn’t have the warmest of welcomes, signing for Manchester United more than a decade ago after refusing his potential agreement with the club for the whole summer transfer season. He didn’t have a lot to do, despite his team playing on the back foot for the majority of the game, but his performance in the return leg will surely be a determining factor.
With the away goals rule gone, Simeone doesn’t have reason to kick himself other than the fact that his team couldn’t make the most of their chances, while Rangnick will be more than pleased with the scoreline and hoping for a better performance at home. These two teams will face again in three weeks’ time in Manchester, and, despite their respective situations, they both have all still to play for in the second leg.
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