Atletico Madrid outfought Bayern Munich 1-0 on the night at the Vicente Calderon to grab a crucial lead before the second leg. It was a fiercely contested game which saw Atletico completely stifle the Bayern attack before Saul Niguez scored a fantastic individual effort for the home side.
Pep Guardiola was left frustrated on the night as his star-studded attacking line-up was unable to score even once leaving Bayern with a lot of work to do in the return leg.
Let us look at 5 talking points for this game.
Atletico Madrid completely stifles Bayern Munich
Diego Simeone’s sides have this special ability to completely stifle teams that face them, something which Barcelona and Bayern Munich came to realise first hand this season. Pep Guardiola was left completely frustrated at the touchline as Bayern kept pushing the Atletico backline but could not find the back of the net even once in the game coming agonizingly close through David Alaba’s vicious 30-yard strike.
In the first half Bayern would’ve wanted one of their chances to sneak in as they kept missing but in the second half, the Bundesliga side came frustratingly close to opening their account only to be foiled by a defender or the keeper or as it happened once, the goalpost.
David Alaba’s sweet strike from distance ended up hitting the bar and left Bayern without one true opportunity to snatch that vital away goal. What is astonishing is Jan Oblak, the Atletico Madrid keeper, recorded his 29th clean sheet of the season in just 46 games across all competitions, a completely mental record for any keeper but seemingly a normal day at the office for Diego Simeone’s charges.
Pep Guardiola’s controversial first eleven choices
The Bayern Munich faithful were left scratching their head a little bit when the team sheets were announced for the game. By the time the game ended, there was anger in some sections of the following as the fans questioned Pep’s rationale behind leaving some of his best players on the bench in such a crucial game.
Frank Ribery, who has enjoyed good form since returning to the Bayern Munich setup from a long-standing injury, was not preferred to Kingsley Coman who has had a bit of a breakaway season of sorts.
What was even more surprising was the fact that Thomas Muller, scorer of 8 goals in the UEFA Champions League for Bayern Munich this season was also left on the bench. Neither had any great impact off the bench but may have been able to impact the game differently had they started.
Later, when questioned about his choices, Pep Guardiola defended his selection by saying that the reason why he made those choices was because he wanted his right winger and left winger to be right and left footed respectively whereas they also needed an extra man in midfield.
While no one will begrudge Pep the choice he made for too long, you cannot help but feel the game would’ve gone a little differently had the choices been different.
Saul Niguez has arrived
You would be forgiven to have not heard much of Saul Niguez before this game. The 21-year-old Spaniard has only come to life in an Atletico shirt this season. Now an ever-present entity in Diego Simeone’s midfield setup, Saul Niguez declared to the world on the night exactly why he is so highly rated by those inside the Atletico Madrid hierarchy and Diego Simeone himself.
Saul Niguez has been quite the handy player in Atletico's setup in the last year or so and was a crucial part for Rayo Vallecano the year before. This year he seems to have gone into overdrive. With a solid number of appearances, Saul’s energy, ability on the ball and discipline off it has been nurtured well by Diego Simeone who reaped the benefit most noticeably in this game.
Not only did Saul Niguez score the winner in the game, his attempt was almost Maradona-esque. He took the ball and ran at defenders at will, leaving behind the likes of Juan Bernat and Xabi Alonso before finally outwitting David Alaba to shoot past Neuer.
During the course of the game, he took more shots and created a great opening for his teammate Koke who flicked into the side netting. On the night, off the ball, Saul was everywhere, defending for his life.
Saul Niguez’s performance on the night seems to have announced his arrival on the European Scene.
Pep Guardiola’s side have work to do
It wouldn’t be the first time that Pep Guardiola’s men this season would have to come back from a deficit to progress in the Champions League. They had to come back in 45 minutes against Juventus which they did rather spectacularly. This time around, they will have a tougher task at hand even if it is for a 90 minute time period.
Diego Simeone revels in circumstances like this and his side managed to keep a Bayern Munich side out without arguably their best defender in Diego Godin, who was out through injury.
Atletico Madrid will enter the Allianz Arena with the belief that they have a realistic chance of repeating the performance with an even stronger team lining up against a Bayern side capable of producing the goods.
Regardless, Pep Guardiola’s men will have to be better prepared, even if they do face Atletico in familiar surroundings this time. One goal for Atletico will give them a great advantage considering the clean sheet they kept at home. Hence, it won’t just be about attack for Bayern Munich as they have quite a task at hand defensively as well.
Diego Simeone will need to keep his side focused
Atletico deserve all the praise flowing in at the moment. They’ve managed to stifle two of the greatest attacks in the competition at the Vicente Calderon this season in Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
However, Diego Simeone will at the back of his mind, rue the chances Atletico missed to snatch a wider lead on the night. In spite of the performance being far from their defensive best, Bayern could not score past them but at the Allianz Arena the dynamics will change.Bayern Munich are a different animal at home and no one will doubt their abilities to put two past any side in the world. Diego Simeone will need to keep his team focused on the job at hand which is far from an easy one.
They need to keep their lines shut tight in the return leg and hope to snatch an away goal as early as possible to put Pep Guardiola’s charges under pressure.
Regardless of what goes on in either manager’s mind at the moment, what is certain is fans have a mouth-watering return leg to look out for.
