Atlético de Madrid achieved a result for history on Wednesday. The rojiblancos eliminated the European champion and the best team in the season's contingent, Liverpool, after prevailing 2-3 in the overtime of the second round of the second leg. The people of Madrid raised the wall, impossible to sustain without Jan Oblak, and they killed the reds on the counterattack after enduring a true siege of the Klopp ones.
The plan was designed, in collaboration with its staff, by a Cholo Simeone who inspired his own and who also knew how to control 'the other football'. Thus, after the defeat and subsequent elimination of the Merseyside, Daily Mail journalist Dominic King left several observations on the behavior of the Argentine coach in the band.
“When Simeone wanted to drive fans crazy in the Metropolitan you could see him yelling” Come on! “But yesterday he changed his mantra to” Slow down! “Simeone was not going to apologize for asking for less speed in every action. Dressed from head to toe in black, Simeone is a pantomime villain, looking like the protagonist of a South American gangster movie and he is just as ruthless, “writes King, who claims that Simeone wanted to win” civilly or criminally. “
Simeone is a pantomime villain, looks like the protagonist of a South American gangster movie, and is just as ruthless. “
Dominic King, journalist for the Daily Mail
“Simeone does not want to make friends or win fans, he is determined to achieve results and he puts more energy into games now than when he was a player, a stage in which he already had few scruples, “says the journalist British who affirms, in turn, that Liverpool “was concerned about Atlético's dark arts and that it had prepared itself not to fall into its traps”.
“You know (Atlético) like making the game as messy as possible but concentrating on that would only do Simeone's good players a disservice “, sentence questioning the coach's methods. Losses of time in service and stopped balls or protests in which “the referee was surrounded by more than five players” were the “dark arts” King did not like.
Some room for praise
Not everything that Atlético did at Anfield displeased Dominic King. The journalist praised the meeting between Stefan Savic and Felipe, whom he described as “indefatigable” and compared with “human magnets that attracted and cleared the ball.” He also gave Thomas an “outstanding”.
“The coach did not celebrate Llorente's first goal, but the second, when he ran around the band smiling for the first time. There is a reason for him to be paid a fortune. It is because nights like this always make a difference,” says King.