Champions League – Atlético Madrid – Manchester City (0-0) – The anti-drought: None

The game: Atlético woke up too late

Three periods of not knowing what to do with the ball and one of realizing that maybe they might do better. This is the terribly frustrating record of Madrid following a chaotic double confrontation. Still, it would have been necessary not to wait for the 56th minute of the return leg to send a first shiver in the camp of the Citizens. Atlético have two main reasons to harbor regrets: the number of clear chances when they decided to cross the center line in number (six between 56th and 90th+11) and the quite relative adversity of a Manchester City not really on his plate. So yes, Diego Simeone managed to anesthetize the English champion but at what cost?

Marcos Llorente (Atletico Madrid) battles for the ball with Phil Foden (Manchester City)

Credit: Getty Images

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Players: Strong as Stones

If only one image of these two quarter-finals had to be remembered, it would undoubtedly be the fantastic save by John Stones on a strike from Cunha (86th). Imperial, the English defender was the big man of the evening. It was more complicated for his attackers between a Phil Foden unable to differentiate and an extinct De Bruyne. On the Atlético side, Geoffrey Kondogbia did the job in front of his defense by cleaning up a lot of balls. Joao Felix, still too light, missed his quarter-finals. Antoine Griezmann was generous in the effort but often imprecise in his last gesture.

The x factor: 90th minute and the dark match

While Atlético finally dominates its subject, that its hold on Manchester City is total, that the men of Pep Guardiola are on the verge of rupture, a scuffle breaks out between Phil Foden, Felipe and Savic. General fight for very long minutes. Madrid will finish the game at 10, their momentum is cut off. A real hara-kiri.

The state: 9

Pep Guardiola will play in his ninth Champions League semi-final. That’s more than any other coach. It remains to go to the end for the first time since 2011.

The décla : Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)

I am proud of this Atlético team, because they fight. We have our way of playing, good or bad, but we fight.

The question: Did the shock live up to its promises?

Never. It was to be the ultimate style opposition between the total football of Pep Guardiola and the fortress erected by Diego Simeone. These were two unemotional matches, closed in a double turn and ended in a general confusion between punches and bloodshed. Twenty-four hours following a madly intense Real Madrid-Chelsea that reminded us why the Champions League was unique, this clash, anesthetized first by the Madridians’ offensive limits and then rotted by their frustration, never took off. .

Goals don’t tell the whole story. But between the 9 pawns of Chelsea – Real Madrid, the ten of Liverpool – Benfica and the six shots on target (for a single achievement) of the tiny City-Atlético, the comparison does not honor either one or the other. After the messy 90 minutes on the way out, it was terrible on the way back and zero down the line. From a first period without relief, apart from an exciting Wanda Metropolitano, to a second that was first exciting then sickening until the intervention of the police in the corridors of the stadium.

We can never blame Atlético for its DNA, its taste for combat and its ability to outsmart the opponent. This is how he shone in the mid-2010s. But his caricature is much less exciting. At the Etihad Stadium, his two lines of five and his inability to trigger the slightest strike proved more the limits of Atlético, much less talented than in his time of splendour, than the tactical genius of his coach. On the way back, white-hot by an atmosphere of bullfighting, the Colchoneros ended up unpinning.

We will all the same remember that this City knows how to suffer. Winning such a battle, in such a hostile atmosphere, resisting provocations: this is also how epics are built. But the price is salty between the injuries of De Bruyne and Walker or the avalanche of cards. Manchester does not come out unscathed, but comes out of it all the same.

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