The Champions League match for today was between Leipzig and Atletico de Madrid. As I mentioned in my article from yesterday these 2 are the third team in their respective national leagues. Atletico ended behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, and Leipzig ended behind Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
Atletico de Madrid has only played 3 Champions League finals in their entire history, 2 of those were on 2014 and 2016. All of them were lost in very tragic ways. This is a team that after signing Simeone as the coach they managed to increase their competitive level up to the point of being considered one of the best teams in the continent, but never the number 1. In order to be number 1 they need to win the Champions League. At least they have won a Spanish League in 2014 but that was the only important trophy (CL/national leagues) they have won in this decade.
They have had great matches against historic teams such as Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and they even beat the almost unbeatable Liverpool in the current Champions League which was a huge surprise for many. The 2 Champions League finals in 2014 and 2016 were lost by an incredibly small margin, in 2014 they were winning and at the last minute, Real Madrid managed to score 1-1. Then in the extra time with the emotions favoring Real Madrid thanks to their last-minute goal they managed to score 3 more goals and beat Atletico 4-1. If it wasn’t for that goal in the last minute Atletico would have won. In 2016, the match was decided by penalties and one player for Atletico missed his penalty while no Real Madrid player missed theirs, so Real was the champion again. But Atletico was always super close.
Today, I honestly was expecting Atletico to win today and face PSG in the semifinal, but their match was very disappointing. Before Leipzig first goal Atletico was just defending trying to keep the game 0-0. They only took initiative to score their first goal after Leipzig scored theirs. And once Atletico scored 1-1, they decided to go back and continue to defend instead of trying to score the second goal.
This same behavior happened in the Champions League final of 2016 between Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid. Atletico was losing, they managed to score 1-1, and then they adopted back a defensive strategy. They ended up losing that finale on the penalties. Today, they also lost the match because Leipzig scored their second goal in the 88-minute mark. I am not sure if this team can continue growing with Simeone as their coach. Things aren't looking very bright for him right now and he seems obsessed with always adopting a defensive strategy.
When it comes to Leipzig, this isn’t a team I am very familiar with. I know they have been finishing in the top positions in the Bundesliga for the last few years. They are also a very young team and this is their second participation in the Champions League. Reaching the semifinal should be like a dream come true for them. Today, they deserved to win.
Tomorrow we have the best quarter-final match for this season. Bayern Munich vs Barcelona. The first team in the German league vs the second team in the Spanish league. Lewandowski vs Messi. I think Bayern wants their revenge after being beaten by Barcelona in 2015 and after losing on so many consecutive years against Spanish teams all the way from 2014 to 2018. It will be an exciting match and I have my popcorns ready to go!