Who Starts the Champions League Final for Atletico Madrid, Gimenez or Savic?

Given that the final match of their Liga season represented nothing more than a dead rubber for Atletico Madrid, the relentless Diego Simeone is probably pacing up and down corridors right now, bouncing off walls and seeking a competitive edge to something.

However many arm wrestles or thumb wars the Argentinian coach can goad others into engaging in, the real battle still lies over a week away in Milan, where UEFA Champions League final revenge that has been two years in the making could finally come to pass.

You get the feeling that Simeone would face up to Real Madrid right now if he had the choice, and Spanish publication AS seems to think he’s already settled on 10 of the 11 names that he will trust to fight his battle for him, supposedly in a 4-4-2 formation.

The newspaper reported on Thursday:

The Argentinian coach was back drilling his odds-on eleven for Milan.

El Cholo is widely believed to favour a 4-4-2 against Madrid, with Saúl, Gabi, Augusto [Fernandez] and Koke in midfield and Fernando Torres and [Antoine] Griezmann leading the attack.

You can add four of the back five to that in goalkeeper Jan Oblak, left-back Filipe Luis, centre-back Diego Godin and right-back Juanfran, and so that only leaves one position left for Simeone to obsess over as his masterplan for overcoming Real Madrid comes together.

Here’s AS again:

The one doubt to be resolved is the central defensive partnership.

Given that Godín is a …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com