UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
When Diego Simeone was appointed manager of Atlético Madrid in December 2011, he faced an awkward conversation with his son. Taking over in Madrid meant he would be spending less time with his family in Argentina. His son’s concerns, though, were rather different. “You’re taking on Messi and Ronaldo?” the nine-year-old said and laughed at the implausibility of such an undertaking.
Simeone, The defensive master has come out on top against Lionel Messi twice in his four and a half years in Madrid but he has chosen his moments well, twice leading Atlético to success over Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals. Tuesday’s victory was an archetypal snuffing out, a transcendent example of how to prevent an opponent’s stars from shining. Simeone took on the Messi problem and solved it.
Another meeting with Real Madrid can wait but the next task for Atlético is slaying an ogre from their past that looms in their consciousness every bit as large as Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Six minutes from the end of extra-time in the 1974 European Cup final, Atlético took the lead against Bayern Munich through a Luis Aragonés free-kick . They seemed set to become the second Spanish team to win the competition but, in the final minute, Georg Schwarzenbeck larruped a 30-yard drive past Miguel Reina, Pepe’s dad, to level. The goalkeeper, legend has it, had been distracted by a photographer.
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