Atlético faces this Wednesday's match against Lokomotiv as the first final of the season. The rojiblanco club knows that If he wins the Russian team, he will have practically in his pocket the pass to the knockout stages of the Champions League, one of the great objectives of the Madrid entity.
The club faces two challenges at the beginning of each year: be among the top four in LaLiga and thus ensure participation in the next edition of the Champions League; and overcome the group stage of this competition and try to finish among the eight best teams in European football. A few minimums necessary for Atlético to maintain its current economic and social level.
From the leaders to the dressing room they know that the match is a final. In the championship, Atlético has started well, is at the top of the table and a stumble can be recovered, since LaLiga is very long. The same is not the case in Europe. A defeat in the fourth day of the Champions League would greatly complicate the pass for Simeone's men.
Atlético has four points. He beat Salzburg and drew in Moscow against Lokomotiv, an accident, since the Madrid team was far superior to its rival and deserved a victory. He had chances to take the three points and finally had to settle for the point. The rojiblancos add four and the Lokomotiv two, so a victory would distance the Russian team by five points, with two rounds to go. Bayern is first and Salzburg closes the group with a point. A vital game and that's how the dressing room takes it, they don't want to leave qualifying for the last minute.
Atlético won some 95 million for their participation in the last edition of Champions, money that is now more necessary than ever due to the impact that the crisis caused by the pandemic has caused in the Madrid entity. For being among the 32 best and playing the group stage (a fact that he achieved thanks to being third in LaLiga) the rojiblancos obtained 15.25 million. To this must be added the income from the results they obtained in it (three victories and a draw in the group stage, in addition to going to the eighth and reaching the quarterfinals), which reported them a total of 29.8 million euros, broken down into 9.8 million for the group stage, 9.5 for reaching the eighth and 10.5 for qualifying for the quarterfinals. In total, for purely sports reasons, he received 45.05 million euros.
To this is added the amount that is entered by the UEFA coefficient of the last ten years, which is obtained based on the successes achieved both in the Champions League and in the Europa League in that period. Atlético is fourth in the ranking and, for this concept, the colchoneros added 32.13 million euros. This gives a cumulative figure of 77.18 million. The rest of the money entered came through the 'market pool'. The party, then, is not just anyone and is worth a lot of money.