Can Diego Simeone recapture the ‘classic’ Atlético Madrid?

The opening goal came from a corner after four minutes, the game exactly where they wanted it already. There was a lead to defend and so they did, an hour passing before the second arrived. Breaking from their own area after a corner, wide spaces suddenly appeared before them and an open goal did too, the shot curling in from forty yards with the goalkeeper off his line. Two touches were all it took, the ultimate in efficiency. Then, in the last minute, another break and it was over. Five shots, three goals, a clean sheet: how very Atlético.

Er, no. Not really, not any more.

On Saturday Atlético Madrid prepared for their meeting with Manchester United by defeating Osasuna 3-0 at El Sadar. It was the day Liverpool faced Norwich so of course Luis Suárez scored, and from miles out. Jan Oblak made four times as many saves as his opposite number. Sime Vrsaljko got away with a hand in an opponent’s face. And Atlético, lined up in a 4-4-2, had 37% of possession but neither wanted nor needed more. “The little details went against us,” Osasuna coach Jagoba Arrasate said.

This was “Classic Atlético”, one newspaper said, but those two words weren’t the point; the truly key words were the other three they used: The, return, and of. That was what made it so significant, why central defender Stefan Savic insisted: “it was important for us to win again and do it with our DNA, which is to be strong at the back and effective up front.” But: is it? Still? And might Saturday’s win, their self-awakening, have been a one-off, another false dawn?

The question that hangs over Atlético as the Champions League returns is not just how they are but who they are. On Tuesday, Ralf Rangnick talked about Atlético as an “emotional side” that “reflects