Shades of Leicester in Atletico

Football : The Spanish challengers have mirrored many qualities of the English underdogs

There are similarities between the way that Leicester City has stormed through the Premier League and how Atlético Madrid has won their last two games in the Champions League, against Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Both Leicester and Atlético are upstarts. They have less to spend than the mighty clubs in their leagues but excel when it comes to hard work, detailed planning and absolute solidarity in their ranks.

Riyad Mahrez has provided magical moments from the right wing of Leicester, and so too did Saúl Ñíguez last Wednesday when he scored a goal for Atlético that possibly transcended any other in the Champions League this season.

Mahrez cost Leicester less than half a million dollars because nobody else saw his potential when he was playing in the lower divisions of French soccer. Saúl, a 21-year-old from Elche in eastern Spain, has been developed by Atlético ever since he was allowed to drop out of Real Madrid’s academy when he was 12.

His potential has never been a secret. Scouts from Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United made regular treks to Madrid to check on Saúl as he progressed through every rank of the Spanish national youth teams. He must be very close to his first cap with the senior team. As the television cameras swept over the 52,000 in the stands on Wednesday at Vicente Calderón Stadium, they focused on the smile of one person — Vicente del Bosque, the coach of the Spanish national team.

The fans had witnessed a very special goal. Advancing from the right of midfield but using predominantly his left foot, Saúl wove between five Bayern opponents as if they were flagpoles on a slalom course. The tackles of Thiago Alcântara, Xabi Alonso and Juan Bernat (all Spaniards playing for a German club) were feeble. Hesitancy by Arturo Vidal and David Alaba meant they made no challenge on Saúl whatsoever.

They were beaten by the persistence, balance and single-mindedness of a young Spaniard who dashed 45 yards with the ball. Finally came the shot, curled low and precise beyond the reach of the world’s leading goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, and into the net off the base of the far post.

Some compared Saúl’s masterpiece to the solo goals of Lionel Messi. But he is not Messi, not at all. Messi is just over 5-ft-6 and blessed with a low center of gravity that enables those high-speed, weaving runs. Like Mahrez, Saúl is closer to 6 feet tall and combines speed and balance and movement. Both were overlooked in their youth, and both are players who are allowed moments of inspiration in a highly regimented team.

Basking in the afterglow of a victory over Bayern, Atlético’s hard-driving Argentine coach, Diego Simeone, told reporters, “Saúl still has a lot to improve on, of course. People now want to pin medals on him, but everything that is happening to him is deserved because he has never stopped working and believing in his own ability.”

As if he, or any Atlético player, would ever be allowed to relax while Simeone is in charge. Ditto for the Leicester players. For all that Leicester Manager Claudio Ranieri comes across as an avuncular man, there is the same relentlessness from him as there is with Simeone, and the same reminders that no player is above the team.

The hard work required by this team-first ethic is not universally popular, but Leicester and Atlético have to be admired. They have thrown down the gauntlet to much wealthier clubs. Though obduracy is basic to Atlético’s game plans, they are nowhere close to the famed catenaccio defending of Inter Milan in the 1960s. Catenaccio (bolting the door) was thoroughly defensive. The way that Atlético throttled the supposedly greater attacking talents of Bayern this week was done on the front foot as it pressed Munich back deep in its own half. Later, with the goal in the bag, Atlético did revert to blanket defending in front of their own penalty area, the same way that they had drawn the sting out of Barcelona in the quarterfinals.

On paper, Bayern still has the talents (and the home record) to overturn this loss in Munich on Tuesday. But that has been said of the big guns in England against Leicester all season long. And there is another similarity between the two clubs — the fact that both the English league leader and Atlético line up in a 4-4-2 formation that was viewed as outmoded in the modern era. Somehow, they make it work. The reality should dawn that it isn’t the formation that drives the success, but the tenacity in how these two high-riding upstarts get into the lead and persevere until they break the will of their opponents.

One thunderous riposte by Bayern — a whiplash 30-yard shot by Alaba that rattled Atlético’s crossbar in the second half — suggested that the wall of defence could be breached. But then back came Atlético, and Fernando Torres probably should have doubled the lead but instead shot against the inside of a post when he had broken through cleanly on goal.

Small mysteries — such as why Bayern Coach Pep Guardiola left Thomas Müller and Franck Ribéry on the bench until late in the game — were left unanswered. But Atlético knows that the task is only half-done, and Bayern in the Allianz Arena is a much different proposition than playing them in Madrid.  “We’re really happy,” said Atlético defender Filipe Luís, “but we know nothing is done yet.”