The image of Diego Simeone running down the touchline at Anfield a la Jose Mourinho after Alvaro Morata’s goal at Liverpool is one of a few iconic images from a game that is now remembered for other reasons.
Their 3-2 win on Merseyside in March 2020 was the final Champions League game on British soil before the world went into shutdown due to coronavirus.
But that should not detract from the spirit they showed that night, and will hope to demonstrate once more when they face another English side in Manchester United in the last 16 of the same competition on Wednesday.
Diego Simeone has played 12 Champions League matches against English opposition
His Atletico Madrid side won at the weekend but have endured a torrid season this term
Los Rojiblancos earned a morale-boosting victory at Osasuna in LaLiga at the weekend but it only slightly improved a record that now reads four league wins in 11 matches since the start of December.
Argentine boss Simeone has come under intense pressure amid his side’s identity crisis, with the club having already shipped 34 league goals this term, nine more than they did in the entirety of 2020-21.
Their latest English opponents at the Wanda Metropolitano have also not been without their fair share of inconsistency, which has made for a fascinatingly-poised first leg.
So how have the current LaLiga champions fared in their twelve Champions League games against Premier League sides under Simeone?
Well their most recent clashes have come to suggest an inferior and at times out-of-sorts Atletico rather than resembling a well-oiled machine Simeone has created for so long.
The Spanish outfit had a man sent off in both of their Group B fixtures against Liverpool this season, with Antoine Griezmann and Felipe seeing red at the Wanda and at Anfield respectively.
Both sides showed defensive vulnerability but attacking panache in Spain, with Frenchman Griezmann scoring twice to restore parity after early Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita strikes.
But he was given his marching orders for the first time in the competition for a high foot on Roberto Firmino.
They face a similarly inconsistent Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League
Atletico Madrid’s recent form against English opposition has left them with many frustrations
Salah’s 78th-minute penalty then saw the Reds snatch victory in a tightly-contested game, but such an adjective would not be used a month later on Merseyside.
Liverpool comfortably swept Simeone’s men aside in November with a 2-0 victory that saw them qualify for the knockouts with two games to spare.
Goals from Diogo Jota and Sadio Mane – both assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold – put the Reds in full control early on and the visitors’ hopes of another famous win at Anfield were buried once Felipe was sent off before half-time.
But it is not just the Reds who have inflicted recent European heartbreak on Atletico Madrid.
Chelsea’s remarkable journey to Champions League glory last season under Thomas Tuchel included the defeat of the Spanish champions at the quarter-final stage over two legs.
Felipe was sent off in the 2-0 defeat by Liverpool in the group-stage clash in November
Antoine Griezmann scored twice but was then sent off for a high foot against the Reds at home
Olivier Giroud’s remarkable bicycle kick in Atletico’s ‘home’ fixture played in Bucharest rather than Spain due to Covid-19 restrictions was the highlight of a performance in which the Blues demonstrated great balance, with Atletico rarely threatening.
The Blues were lucky to not concede a penalty early on in the return leg at Stamford Bridge, but once more Atletico looked devoid of ideas once Hakim Ziyech had made it 2-0 on aggregate before Emerson Palmieri’s late third.
So while their most recent showdowns against English sides have ultimately ended in failure, a deeper dive into the annals of Champions League history suggests they are a side who enjoy the battle against Premier League opposition.
Atletico Madrid went into that now famous night at Anfield in March 2020 1-0 up after Saul Niguez’s fourth-minute strike in the first leg.
But Georginio Wijnaldum cancelled that out in the 90 minutes and then Robert Firmino seemingly completed the Liverpool comeback to set them on course for the quarter-finals.
Marcos Llorente had other ideas though, dramatically turning the tie once more on its head before the first half of extra time had concluded with two composed finishes, before Morata’s third on the break.
Olivier Giroud scored a remarkable overhead kick for Chelsea in the round of 16 in Budapest
The return leg saw Chelsea advance following goals from Hakim Ziyech and Emerson (right)
But prior to that, Atletico Madrid had only faced Premier League sides wearing blue under Simeone in the Champions League.
Four of those six games were against Chelsea, with the first half of those matches holding much greater significance than the other two.
The pair met at the semi-final stage of the 2013-14 Champions League, which appeared finely poised after a goalless first leg at the Vicente Calderon.
But the return leg at Stamford Bridge saw the Diego Costa show just a few months before he joined the west London outfit, putting in a tireless shift in a superb counter-attacking display for the visitors.
The former Spain international scored from the spot in between Adrian Lopez’s scrambled finish and Arda Turan’s third, with Jose Mourinho’s men denied a third Champions League final in seven seasons.
The now two-time winners of the competition would exact some sort of revenge four seasons later at the Wanda Metropolitano during the group stages, and in dramatic fashion too.
Saul scored the only goal of the first leg between Atletico and Liverpool in February 2020
It was then the Marcos Llorente (right) show at Anfield in extra time in the Anfield return leg
Morata – then in Chelsea colours – had cancelled out Griezmann’s penalty before the Spaniard was replaced by Michy Batshuayi, who scored the winner in the 94th minute from the last kick of the game following Marcos Alonso’s cross.
But the Spaniards would hand their west London opponents a different kind of disappointment on the final matchday of the group stages in the 2017-18 season.
No Chelsea player scored in the 1-1 draw between the sides at Stamford Bridge, with Stefan Savic’s own goal coming after Saul had given the visitors the lead.
But the stalemate would result in further pain for the Blues, who missed out on the chance to top the group ahead of Roma, which consequently led to a last-16 tie with Barcelona, which they lost 4-1 on aggregate.
Atletico meanwhile missed out on qualification for the knockouts altogether by finishing third, but would still taste continental success that season through winning the Europa League, a campaign which saw them defeat Arsenal in the semi-finals.
The Spaniard also hammered the Blues under Simeone in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup thanks to Radamel Falcao’s hat-trick in Monaco, but Leicester City are the only other English side to face Simeone’s men in the Champions League.
Their clash came in the quarter-final stage of the 2016-17 season, the campaign after the East Midlands outfit pulled off the seemingly impossible by winning the Premier League.
Diego Costa (left) led the line brilliantly as Atletico beat Chelsea to reach the 2014 final
The Blues exacted some revenge in 2017 with Michy Batshuayi’s late group-stage winner
The Foxes’ prominence at the time made for a superb contest, with a stubborn Leicester defence unfortunate to concede a slender first-leg deficit following Antoine Griezmann’s penalty.
Defensive resilience then became attacking dominance as Leicester created numerous chances at the King Power Stadium, but were ultimately behind the eight ball following Saul’s strike.
Jamie Vardy did equalise on the night but the Foxes failed to find the other two goals that would have sealed their passage to the semi-finals.
While the Foxes have dramatically dropped off from this sort of showing – particularly this season – Atletico Madrid are seemingly way off the level they demonstrated in that tie.
A resurgent Barcelona could see Atletico miss out on a top-four finish for the first time since Simeone’s first season in charge back in 2011-12, meaning winning the competition may be the only route back into it.
But for that to even be a possibility, they must draw on the good memories and avoid a repeat of the bad when mixing it with English opposition in their first European meeting with Man United since 1991-92.
Griezmann’s penalty helped Atletico to a 1-0 quarter-final first-leg win against Leicester
Saul Niguez’s goal at the King Power Stadium was enough to see them through to the semis
