On January 19, 2024, in the 1 8 finals of the Spanish Copa del Rey, Atletico Madrid defeated Real Madrid 4-2 in extra time to advance to the next round, and also ended Real Madrid's unbeaten myth of 21 consecutive games. In that game, in the 90 minutes, Lino and Morata scored, while Griezmann and Riquelme scored in extra time; In addition, Atletico goalkeeper Oblak scored an inexplicable goal after knocking down his teammate - an own goal.
This Copa del Rey is one of the few Atletico matches I've watched, and the author's experience isDusty stereotypes really should be changed by watching more games!
Atletico's style of play has changed a lot this season, and more often than not, they will adopt a pass-based attacking approach, which is very different from the author's impression of focusing on solid defense and striving for defensive counter-attacks. The "new Atletico" are more open and have more attacking routines, which has allowed them to score as many as 50 goals in La Liga this season.
Moreover, Atletico Madrid's defense is no longer the big action of the old past, and iron blood is no longer equal to dirty, except for the occasional work of the referee throughout the game, although Atletico Madrid's fouls are slightly more than the opponent's, but there is no useless action, and there is no out-of-the-ordinary action, all fouls are within the scope of conventional understanding. At the end of the game, Atletico had 10 to 7 one-on-one battles, 34 to 16 steals, and 20 to 13 fouls, but the yellow cards were 6 to 6.
Well, after the basic tone is set, let's start to talk about Atletico Madrid from a few aspects.
1. Atletico Madrid's schedule and opponent analysis:
In terms of the league, the Spanish First Division has been played in 25 rounds, and Atletico Madrid has 16 wins, 3 draws and 6 losses, accumulating 51 points and ranking fourth. With 11 points left in the league with 13 rounds remaining, Atletico Madrid has no hope of competing for the league title this season.
In terms of Champions League qualification, Atletico Madrid has 51 points, Girona has 56 points, Barcelona has 54 points, and fifth-place Bilbao has 49 points.
Of the four teams, Girona have a relatively easy schedule, with no European commitments, the Copa del Rey exited early, and there is only one single line left in the league. In terms of fixtures, Girona only has one away duel with Atletico Madrid and one duel at home against Barcelona, and the rest of the opponents are not strong.
After Barcelona is out of the Copa del Rey, it is currently a Champions League + league double-line battle, and what makes people speechless is that after the two-legged match with Napoli, Barcelona needs to face the yellow card madman Getafe at home and Atletico Madrid away, in addition, Barcelona also has a national derby away with Real Madrid, an inn Girona, and a home game against Real Sociedad. Judging from the schedule alone, Barcelona is not easy at all.
Bilbao have been on a strong streak lately, but it will take a steady wave of abuse if they want to pull either of Barcelona and Atletico Madrid down. In terms of fixtures, Bilbao needs to play Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona at home, but there are few opponents who can fight other than that. In addition, Bilbao has a Copa del Rey task against Atletico Madrid, a direct rival for Champions League qualification. The author believes that as long as Bilbao does not drop the chain, there is a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League after the end of the league.
Atletico's upcoming fixtures, home to Barcelona in the 29th round of the league on 18 March (four days after the second leg of the Champions League against Inter), home to Girona in the 31st round of the league on 14 April, and home to Bilbao in the 33rd round of the league on 28 April, are all direct conversations with Champions League qualification rivals. The good news is that all three games are at home. In addition, Atletico will face Real Sociedad away in the final round of the league on 26 May. As long as they don't lose to Bilbao, Atletico Madrid's abusive attributes are still higher than their opponents.
Second, Atletico Madrid's main framework and starter**
After a medical miracle, Alvaro Morata managed to catch the first leg of the Champions League knockout tie with Inter. However, in terms of starting**, Sky Sports still conservatively chose the combination of Griezmann and Llorente, who started in the last game against Las Palmas.
1. Llorente: To be reasonable, it is not surprising that Llorente has the attributes of playing as a striker, but it is worth eye-popping that he can play the position of a striker so well. It seems that after Pep Guardiola left, many coaches in La Liga have been obsessed with developing players' multi-position attributes. Llorente's performance in pushing to the front line is excellent, and it has to be said that this is another classic operation after Simeone let Witsel play as a defender.
2. Witsel: A typical case of retreating from the ball point, referring to Inter Milan's left-back Bastoni. In the near future, this kind of operation will be popular in major European leagues, although the advantages and disadvantages of this operation are very obvious.
Take Witsel as an example: because he is not a pure defender, but he is only a little lacking in individual confrontations, one-on-one defensive positioning, and the ability to anticipate the danger of the opponent's attack, but it is only compared to those first-class European central defenders. This is also one of the reasons why Simeone's five defenders have doubled in value, like Hermoso, he has made up for Witsel countless times in one game, and it is strange that his value has not increased.
However, Witsel's offensive attributes, playmaking vision, passing accuracy, and other ball-carrying abilities often make him the first point of attack in the team's offensive advancement, and when he organizes the attack in his position, he will hardly encounter problems such as close pressing, back to the ball, etc. Witsel's performances at centre-back have been highly praised so far for his ability to strike lethal strikes from the back.
In the author's opinion, Atletico's record this season has occasionally been up and down, with a 5-0 win over Las Palmas in the last round of the league with only 35% possession; In the group stage of the Champions League, he also defeated Celtic 6-0 with 70% possession; It can be described as being able to attack and accept. No, it can attack and defend. However, it is not over, in the Copa del Rey match against Real Madrid mentioned at the beginning, Atletico Madrid's possession rate was only 37%; But they were tortured twice by Bilbao with 70 per cent possession. So is Atletico good at playing possession, or good at playing off the ball? Simple, the door is in Witsel.
If Witsel plays well and the opponent is unable to suppress the Belgian's on-ball attack with an effective attacking system, then whether the ball is controlled more or less, Atletico's attack is very efficient. On the contrary, before he plays to his offensive strengths, he is blown up, and Witsel wool is gone, and Atletico has no choice but to have empty possession.
Therefore, in the author's opinion,Whether Inter can beat Witsel may be one of the core issues in the battle between Inter and Atletico Madrid.
3. In addition, it must be noted that when Atletico Madrid was attacking, the two wingbacks Molina and Rino pressed very high, and even surpassed Pavard and Bastoni. So, sometimes I really wonder if Inzaghi Jr. and Simeone had a tactical exchange in private. As for who blows whom, it depends on the on-the-spot performance.
4. Griezmann, who can't be avoided: In January 2024, Griezmann posted on social media** that Depay presented him with a custom ring to congratulate him on becoming the all-time goalscorer of Atletico Madrid. So far, Griezmann has played 376 games for Atletico Madrid, scoring 175 goals, surpassing Aragonés to be the all-time top scorer of Atletico Madrid.
If you don't take into account his inexplicable journey to Barcelona, the author still respects this Atletico legend very much. Of course, the author doesn't mean to be offensive to Barcelona, but I just feel that as a core of Atletico Madrid, I have to go to Barcelona as a leftover, and I missed Atletico Madrid's La Liga championship after all, this kind of behavior is really unwise and personally incomprehensible, that's all.
3. Atletico Madrid and Inter are inextricably linked
Speaking of which, there are so many inextricable links between Atletico Madrid and Inter, which the author never expected.
1. The head coach of the two teams, Inzaghi Jr. and Simeone, have been teammates in Lazio, and Simeone himself has played for Inter.
2. The two strikers in Inter's start, captain Lautaro and new recruit Thuram Jr., had scandals with Atletico Madrid before officially joining Inter Milan, and even came close to joining the Plaid Army at one time.
3. During the summer transfer period this year, former Chelsea meritorious captain Cesar Azpilicueta was once close to joining Inter Milan, but was finally intercepted by Atletico Madrid. Cesar Azpilicueta was not named in the squad due to injury.
4. Porto striker Taremi, who has just been recruited by Romano HWG, is rumored to be a key target for Atletico Madrid this summer.
5. Once upon a time, Atletico Madrid's veteran captain Godin once came to Inter to alleviate poverty through technology, and Inter also bought Atletico Madrid's star fullback Fosarico, but unfortunately he disappeared after playing the World Cup in a closed game.
4. Referees
Simeone said at a press conference: "It's going to be a tough match. The side that wins more confrontations will be closer to victory.
The author believes that Simeone's envisaged strategy of crushing Inter with his muscles is definitely targeted. The reason is: the referee of this game [István Kovac].
If the Italian national post is Osato, then the Romanian national post is this Kovacs.
A brief introduction to the referee: This season, Kovac has officiated in a total of four games, namely Newcastle's 4-1 home win over Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal's 2-0 home win against Sevilla, AC Milan's 1-3 home defeat to Borussia Dortmund, and Porto's 5-3 home win over Shakhtar. Four games are counted, with an average penalty of 025, an average of 4 cards per game5, there were no controversial decisions, and overall, Kovac's whistle will be slightly skewed in favor of the home team.
Born on 16 September 1984, Hungarian-Romanian Kovac was promoted to international referee in 2010 and UEFA elite referee in 2020. After officiating the Qatar World Cup, Kovacs, who has some qualifications, officially took the position and held up the banner of the Romanian refereeing community.
Interestingly, the chief referee of the Romanian referee should be undisputed as the famous European elite referee Hatsegan, so no matter what the reason, the referee team representing the Romanian referee to attend the World Cup will not be Kovac's turn, however, God will reward the food, and he can't stop it, less than 9 months after the start of the World Cup, Hatsegan had a heart attack and almost lost his life, and emergency surgery + stent saved his life. As a result, Kovac and his team were pushed onto the train to the World Cup, and by the way, the Champions League semi-finals that originally belonged to Hatsegan were also bagged.
Since then, Hatsegan has opted to retire and go down the slope, while Kovacs shines in the wind.
Overall, the fluency of the game is one of the characteristics of Kovacs's law enforcement; Small actions are basically not given yellow cards, but ** law enforcement or delay time when being substituted, basically will be the first time yellow card and the card is very decisive, four Champions League games, each game has at least one yellow card for delay or law enforcement.
Therefore, Inter must be cautious in the home game against Atletico Madrid and do not argue with the referee; At the same time, the action can be slightly amplified, after all, there are not many yellow cards.
In the last round of the league, Atletico Madrid rotated a large area, De Paul, Depay, Witsel, Griezmann, Hermoso and others have been suspended, the purpose is obvious, is to stay for the Champions League in midweek. Similarly, Inter also chose to let the main players rest after taking a big lead over their opponents. Both sides are well prepared for this match. Who will have the last laugh between Inzaghi Jr. and Simeone may depend on who can accurately predict the opponent before the game!
However, Acerbi's injury is a big loss for Inter. Although De Vrey's state has improved, I don't know why, I can't see my old father pressing his legs on the field, and the author's heart is always not so steady.
Finally, I wish Inter can play well in the next games and win the menacing Simeone team at the minimum cost.
February** Dynamic Incentive Program