Atletico Madrid Need to Embrace the Sense of Occasion in Huge Madrid Derby

At the risk of sounding like one of those Christmas-themed commercials which are increasingly infiltrating our television screens, this isn’t just any old Madrid derby. It’s a big Madrid derby.

Atletico and Real face off in what will be their last league meeting at the Vicente Calderon on Saturday evening, under the famous old stadium’s floodlights. Depending on Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions League progress, it could be the last “El Derbi madrileno” to be staged there.

Estadio La Peineta awaits for the red-and-white-clad hordes next season, but there is a looming and increasingly pertinent question over just what sort of Atletico team will play at the club’s new stadium.

The international break has brought a fresh round of questions surrounding the future of their star player, Antoine Griezmann—who has been linked with Manchester United in publications such as the Daily Star—while an injury picked up by the Frenchman that makes him doubtful for the game has hardly lightened the mood.

Throw in the defeat to Griezmann’s old club, Real Sociedad, before the international break, and this would have felt like a long two weeks for Atletico fans. The fact that the fixture they look forward to the most lies at the end of it would only have increased anticipation.

And they look forward to it so much because, by and large, their team does well in it.

In league combat alone, manager Diego Simeone is unbeaten in his last six derbies; in all competitions, the Atletico boss has only lost three of his last 13 matches against Real Madrid. It just so happened that two were Champions League finals.

The pain of the penalty shootout loss in Milan—coming so soon after 2014’s agonising defeat in Lisbon—may never truly leave Atletico’s charismatic boss.

The unusual move to shorten his contract earlier this season suggests that the long goodbye to Atletico and the club’s fans has finally begun. He will lead them into their new stadium next season, but that looks to be his only campaign in the home dugout there. And then when he goes, plenty of the club’s star players could follow him.

And all of that must weigh on the minds of supporters who know that the security and almost-guaranteed progress …

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