The red-and-white part of Madrid was not particularly happy before the second leg of this Champions League quarter-final. They had not liked the reaction to Atletico Madrid’s performance in the first, either from within English football or across the continent. Cheap criticism of an approach that produced no shots on goals over an entire 90 minutes, as pure a distillation of cholismo as possible, had left them bruised and insulted.
They were not too fond of Marco van Basten’s recommendation to “change the channel or put on Netflix” rather than watch Atletico. They had not liked Arrigo Sacchi’s claim that their style “doesn't give you joy even when you win”. Diego Simeone’s response was as peculiar as it was vaguely menacing. “It’s like my dad said,” he replied. “The fish dies through the mouth.”
