At first it was just a few but very soon everyone joined in, good news travelling fast around the Vicente Calderón, all the way from the Allianz Arena in Munich. The scoreboard was almost as swift: Bayern Munich 1-0 Real Madrid flashed up and this stadium, in its 50th and final year, erupted. The noise, loud from the start, rose a level. Then, moments later, it somehow rose again when Antoine Griezmann put Atlético ahead. They were enjoying this: it had been quite a minute.
Their city rivals were trailing 1,500km away while they themselves led. Twice in three years Diego Simeone’s side reached the final and both times they were cruelly defeated by Real, the coach describing the weeks after Milan as like “a period of mourning”. At the team hotel Atlético’s fans had waited, fireworks colouring the air. “Bring happiness to my heart,” they sang, “the Champions League is our obsession.” How could it not be after what Real did to them? How could they not celebrate their misfortune?
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