One embodies the defensive solidity and intensity that they have reinstalled Athletic of Madrid among the greats of Europe; the other the tactical versatility and the daring to release the RB Leipzig in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. They both enjoy the spaces and the counterattack. Diego Simeone and Julian Nagelsmann they are two extremes that touch.
This Thursday's duel at the José Alvalade in Lisbon for a place in the semifinals of the Champions League will face two unique coaches, those who leave their mark in the dressing room and are associated by opposing styles of play, although they enjoy equally when your teams attack with spaces.
To describe Simeone liters of ink have been used, fed by the continuity of a recognizable background during the eight and a half years that he has been teaching at Atlético: a non-negotiable 4-4-2, altered only at specific times and for very specific purposes, based on the defensive intensity, the high pressure at the beginning of the games, the dominance of the second plays and above all, the solidity of his four defenders.
Fruit of that brand, Atlético has reached its best levels in recent decades since 2012 -the best moment in the club's history with the team from the 70s- with seven titles (two European Leagues and three European Super Cups, one Spanish League, one King's Cup and one Spanish Super Cup) and two lost League finals of Champions, in 2014 and 2016, both against Real Madird.
Along with the purely tactical, the ‘Cholo’ has inoculated his team with an agonistic element, a capacity to suffer in the face of the onslaught of the opponent, fundamental in a large part of Atlético's successes in the Champions League: the quarterfinal return against Barcelona in 2013-14 or the resolution of the semifinal against Bayern Munich in 2015-16 are the best examples.
Also a good proof of this intangible aspect is the match that led Atlético to Lisbon, the last duel before the paralysis of football due to the pandemic in Liverpool (2-3).
At Anfield Road and against the European champions, the rojiblanco team suffered and survived sheltered in their defense and in an outstanding work of the Slovenian Jan Oblak in goal. When the Brazilian Roberto Firmino scored for the ‘reds’ as soon as overtime began, not only did he not fall, but he drew strength to come back from the hand of two goals from Marcos Llorente and one of Alvaro Morata.
NAGELSMANN, A YOUNG WONDER OF BENCHES
For its part, Julian Nagelsmann He is a young prodigy on the bench, who at 33 could be part of the squad of either team and is only a few months older than Atlético's substitute goalkeeper, Antonio Adam.
Back problems cut short his career as a center-back in Munich 1860, and a knee injury ended it when he was in the Augsburg second team, then trained by the now PSG coach, Thomas tuchel. Freshly injured and under contract, Nagelsmann began working with him as a scout for opponents.
He went to the training benches in the quarry of Munich 1860 and of the Hoffenheim, with which he won the youth championship for the first time in the club's history, at the same time he was assistant to the first team, in which the goalkeeper Tim Wiese -now in wrestling- he gave him the nickname ‘Mini-Mourinho’, an appellation that hardly matches his play script but of someone he admires.
The alternative with the Hoffenheim first team came in February 2016, at the age of 28, and a year and three months later he confirmed the first qualification to the Champions League in the club's history. They did not pass the previous phase – they were thrown by Liverpool who would later be runner-up against Real Madrid – but they played the Europa League and repeated the following season, this time in the group phase, standing up to the Shaktar Donetsk Ukrainian and French Lyon.
By then Nagelsmann was showing off his many tactical variants: between the three center-backs with lanes and the defensive line of four with wingers ahead, he made versatility one of his hallmarks. He developed the talent of players like the forward Serge gnabry and the central Niklas Süle, both today at Bayern Munich. And Leipzig knocked on his door.
It was not the only club that contacted him, because even Real Madrid called him in the summer of 2018 to succeed Zinedine Zidane. “I was surprised, I considered it and I did not feel comfortable going there. I wanted to improve. If you go to Real Madrid, there is no time to improve as a coach. I am not the best now, but I would like to be in the future, “Nagelsmann said in an interview with 'The Independent'.
In the team promoted by the Austrian energy drink company Red Bull, the German coach has won in budget and ambitions – his goal is to win the Bundesliga in two years and they fought the title at Bayern until February – but he has not changed his signs of identity at stake: mutable schemes, game by the bands and clearly offensive orientation. At Tottenham, a European runner-up, Leipzig made it 4-0 between the round of 16.
WHERE THE EXTREME ARE TOUCHING: THE SPACES AND THE CHANGES
There are at least two sections where Simeone and Nagelsmann conclude. One, already mentioned, is his fondness for the game in spaces. For Atlético, it is their favorite way of attacking, starting from the opponent's mistake or quick recovery, seeking the counterattack with the vertigo of players like the Belgian Yannick Carrasco, the portuguese Joao Felix, Argentine Ángel Correa (absent due to his positive in COVID-19) Álvaro Morata or Diego Costa.
In the case of Leipzig, the search for spaces has more to do with possession and widening the field. For that the laterals are fundamental, both the Spanish Angelino on the left, like the French Nordi mukiele to the right. Also the Austrian Marcel sabitzer and even spanish Dani Olmo Falling to the side
Another aspect that characterizes both equally is their ability to influence what happens on the field and their absence of reserves when moving pieces in the game or altering schemes if they see that the team does not evolve as they thought. Simeone He has been one of those who got the most out of the five changes in the league return – during which Atlético did not lose any games – and Nagelsmann also considers himself an interventionist coach.
His duel will be another attraction of an unprecedented clash in the Champions League, in a city, Lisbon, where he already won this year Nagelsmann, a 1-2 in the group stage against Benfica with two goals from Timo Werner, with whom he no longer has after his departure to Chelsea. For Simeone and Atlético, the Portuguese capital, represents a pending account: that of the final lost in 2014.