Only a mere 7.2 miles, 20 minutes along the M-30, separates the Santiago Bernabeu and Vicente Calderon stadiums, but in terms of football philosophies and preparation, Real Madrid and Atletico are a million miles apart.
Ahead of Saturday's Champions League final between the Madrid rivals, Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has run through what we can expect in Milan.
So just what are the major differences between the two finalists?
The managers
Both Diego Simeone and Zinedine Zidane were great players and cult heroes at their respective clubs. That, however, is where the similarity ends. In just about every other way, they are polar opposites.
To merely describe Simeone as 'hands-on' is to seriously underestimate his level of involvement. What we have here is a man totally obsessed with football, who transmits his heart, soul and very being into every single aspect of this Atletico side.
A man who, in his head, kicks every ball, takes every throw, hits every free-kick, saves every shot and scores every goal. A man who lives, breathes and feels the pleasure and the pain of every one of his players, and a man who believes to the very depths of his red-and-white-striped soul that to do it any other way would be nothing short of a dereliction of duty.
Zidane, as we have all seen and Marco Materrazi has personally felt, is not above the occasional overt display of football passion, although it has to be said that from a coaching point of view, his approach occasionally seems laid back to the point of being almost horizontal.
What we have here, in complete contrast to his predecessor Rafa Benitez, is a man who has more or less let his team develop on its own and discover its own identity.
That said, he has taken on board a few of the decisions that Benitez put in place, namely the inclusion of Casemiro, the gradual sidelining of Isco and James Rodriguez, and the increased prominence to the attack of Gareth Bale.
And to date, despite my early misgivings, this particular style of management seems to sit very well with this Real Madrid side.
As the saying has it, what can't speak, can't lie. Since taking over in January, in addition to taking Real Madrid to just one match from their 11th European Cup, he also saw his side take the title race against Barcelona right to the wire, winning 21 and losing just two out the 26 league games in charge.
He must be doing something right, yet deep down I can't help but feel that the real problem with Real is that at one point or another during every game, they are showing vulnerability. The only exception to that was, perhaps, the Manchester City semi-final, although that may have had more to do with City's weakness rather than Real's strength.
These are weak areas that can normally be corrected in training with hard work and application, but the feeling I get is that he doesn't really bother too much with it, concentrating more on keeping the side fit and, above all, content.
Simeone's Atletico could not be more different. Like a predatory animal sensing blood, they harass and encircle their quarry, looking to exploit any of their opponent's shortcomings.
They will work to that end relentlessly in training and if there is the slightest indication of any frailty during the game, the merest suggestion of an Achilles heel, then Atletico will go for the jugular. That is exactly what I think will happen in this final.
The physicality
Compared to the team that reached the final against Real two years ago in Lisbon, just about every single Atletico Madrid player has played less minutes this time around.
In addition, every single player, including those on the bench, feel they have a part to play, not least the re-born Fernando Torres, who has gone from being a third striker to automatic starter.
Two years ago, Sergio Ramos' last-gasp equaliser was a dagger to the heart of a spent, broken, over-used, battered and bruised Atletico side that realised at that one moment t
No comments:
Post a Comment