Bayern Munich Defeat Won’t Bother Diego Simeone, but Gives Him Food for Thought

Atletico Madrid are no strangers to failing to live up to the standards set by Barcelona and Real Madrid, but some heights are higher than others.

After all, the fact that Atletico missed the chance on Tuesday to join Barca, Real, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Spartak Moscow as just the sixth club to win all six of their Champions League group matches in a season was regrettable, but hardly anything to get too upset about.

The 1-0 defeat at Bayern Munich had already been declared pretty much null and void before the Atletico players touched down in Bavaria on Monday.

Their excellent results throughout what had looked to be a tricky group at the outset meant whatever happened in Munich was going to be irrelevant. Given Bayern had won their previous 14 Champions League home matches, the fact that soon became 15 really shouldn’t be seen too much of a surprise.

Fielding a team which was a mixture of his usual selections and a nod to the experimental, Atletico manager Diego Simeone watched on as Robert Lewandowski’s first-half free-kick sealed the points for a Bayern side that are in an unfamiliar position this season—second place.

Carlo Ancelotti’s team ended up as runners-up to Atletico in Group D and are second in the Bundesliga behind shock early-season leaders RB Leipzig. The last time Atleti were here, they made Bayern look second best again as they edged past them in the Champions League semi-finals.

That is not a position that Bayern take lightly, and so there was no surprise that they were determined to get one over on Simeone’s side so soon after their disappointment of last season. If this result meant more to anyone, it was to them.

But that’s not to say that there wasn’t anything for Atletico to gain from it.

Speaking at his post-match press conference—words reported here by Atletico’s official website—a philosophical Simeone said: “The work done was very good. The first half was different from the second one. Both the beginning and the end of the match show us that the team is there.”

He added:

We had two good intents from [Yannick] Carrasco at the beginning. …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com