Diego Simeone famously described his uncompromising playing and management style as: "Playing with a knife between the teeth."
For Simeone, every game is a battle, one in which every weapon must be utilised in the pursuit of victory, however ugly and unedifying. This was one such game for Simeone and his Atletico bandits, one in which their game-plan was to dig in and try to thwart City, in the hope the hosts made an error from which they could profit.
Atletico adopted a policy of containment from kick-off, happy to defend deep and allow City all the possession, relying on the defensive discipline and diligence instilled in them by Simeone to frustrate Pep Guardiola's side. Yet, even by Simeone and Atletico's belligerent standards, this was a particularly taxing assignment, one that
Simeone's frustration was evident after 20 minutes, when he turned away from the pitch, rubbed his hands through his receding curls and puffed out his cheeks to illustrate just how hard it was keeping City at bay. Three weeks earlier, four miles across the other side of the city, Simeone and his players had executed such a game-plan to perfection, in the second leg of their last 16 tie against Manchester United.
Having plundered a goal just before half-time, Atletico spent the second-half indulging in the dark arts so beloved by their coach, feigning injury, pressuring the referee, time-wasting and generally being as sly as possible. Guardiola had clearly primed the ball-boys at the Etihad to get the ball back to City's players as quickly as possible, to not allow Atletico any time to regroup and get back in shape.
Simeone, clearly wise to this tactic, took the ball off one particularly zealous ball-boy in the first half and held on to it to delay the restart, while he delivered instructions to his players. Such small details, as Simeone articulates in Living Match By Match, an Amazon Prime documentary charting his playing and managerial career, can be where matches are ultimately won and lost.
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Guardiola knew Simone was destined to succeed in management when he came to see him at Barcelona, a decade ago. When Simeone questioned his revered approach, Guardiola's response was "wow, this motherf***** will be good".
Just how good Guardiola learned to his cost in 2016, when Simeone's Atletico beat his Bayern Munich side in the Champions League semi-finals. Six years on and, although City lead at the halfway stage of this tie, Guardiola knows streetwise Simeone remains a thorn in his side.
