Atletico Madrid vs. Bayern Munich Has the Makings of a Fierce European Rivalry

The loathing was palpable. “Today ugly football—Atletico—played against the best football in the world,” declared Arturo Vidal, defeat bringing not admiration but resentment. “The only time they saw the ball was for the goal. The best does not always win in football, like today. They are not deserved finalists.”

Vidal’s assessment had come immediately after his Bayern Munich had been knocked out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage by Atletico Madrid in May. There in Bavaria, Bayern had won 2-1 on night, letting go of a barrage of shots and having almost complete ownership of the ball in a performance of extreme dominance. And yet it was they who were heading out of the competition.

Atletico had hustled another giant, and those giants hate nothing more than a hustle. You sense something’s growing here because of it. 

It’s often said that rivalries are born through either proximity or familiarity, and while that’s largely true, there’s another layer that matters. Though local affairs are edgy and though frequent ones are riddled with contempt, it’s the rivalries in which contrast exists between their clubs’ identities that often stand out.

The Madrid derby is an example in this respect, foes separated by ideology and history, by mentality and demographic. Atletico vs. Bayern has the makings of something along these lines, but it wasn’t born in 2016. 

Prior to their meeting in last season’s Champions League, Atletico and Bayern had only met once before, in the 1974 European Cup final at Heysel Stadium.

Atleti had gone ahead through Luis Aragones deep into added time, seemingly certain to go where they’d never gone before. But in a way that has defined Atleti since, Bayern’s Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck struck in the dying seconds, forcing a replay that would be played two days later and that Bayern would win 4-0. It’s a meeting that irrevocably shaped both clubs. 

Der Kaiser Beckenbauer lunges to divert the ball away from Atlético’s ‘Cacho’ Heredia in the 1974 European Cup final. pic.twitter.com/tyVVvCpB0e

— AS English (@English_AS) March 14, 2014

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For Bayern, that win was the first of three straight European Cup triumphs, propelling them into the continent’s aristocracy, riding a generation led by Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller. For Atleti, though, that night in Brussels and its despair consumed them; they became the club that saw themselves as cursed, the one that unfortunate things happen to. “El Pupas,” the jinxed one, they became known as. 

There are still elements of that, but it’s changing. Atletico might have lost two Champions League finals in three seasons in the cruelest fashion, as only they could, but in the broader picture, they’re growing out of being the jinxed one.

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