Atlético Madrid’s no transfer policy contributed to their failure to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League, while Eden Hazard’s dazzling display gives Chelsea cause for optimismAt the end of this occasionally heated, largely room temperature night of make-or-break Champions League football Atlético Madrid’s travelling fans could be seen still singing in the away end 20 minutes after the final whistle, scarves twirling, flags draped, a wall of consolatory red and white.Atlético may have just failed to reach the knockout stages for the first time in seven seasons after this 1-1 draw. They may have looked blunt, a powerhouse whose resources have been stretched, with a team who have aged together. But this is a club built on that...
It is still early in the season but even a draw in the derby was not much use; Madrid and Atlético had to win. Only Barcelona didFC Barcelona pulled out of Butarque on an angular blue and orange bus that looked like it had been borrowed from a school trip in the 90s a bit before seven on Saturday evening and headed 30 kilometres north up the M40 to the airport at Barajas, their work done. Half of it, anyway. Nearby, just about visible from the terminal, stood the Wanda Metropolitano, where the rest of it was done for them. Not long after Barça had set off, and a couple of hours after Alavés had passed on their way north...
Chelsea’s Belgian playmaker responded in style to Antonio Conte’s call to raise his game at the elite level and left Atlético Madrid trailing in his wakeIt was about two minutes after the final whistle, while Antonio Conte and his victorious players were still massing to acknowledge their fans’ delirious celebrations up in the gods, when the television cameras focused in upon their man. Diego Costa was sitting among the Atlético Madrid dignitaries, initially wearing the same haggard, disbelieving look as those immediately around him, before sinking his head into his hands. It was an image to sum up the locals’ dismal night but, deep inside, even the departed striker must have admired everything his former team‑mates had done here.Conte had...
For the first time, Diego Simeone is playing the rotation game. It also reflects something deeper, something seen more as the beginning of a transitionAt 9.30am, the same time they started serving breakfast at Atlético’s, Diego Costa walked into a Majadahonda clinic across the other side of Madrid, but he wasn’t going to be kept from them for long. He had barely been in the country 15 hours, touching down just before five on Friday, and he was only in the clinic 60 minutes or so, most of it spent getting reacquainted with familiar faces. There were no photos, shirt off, suckers on, thumbs up, and when he was asked if he had passed his medical he pointed to the...
In their last league game, Antonio Conte’s side missed how the forward would have driven Arsenal to distraction and the 28-year-old will depart Stamford Bridge having more than played his part in the successesThere is an irony that Diego Costa’s tortuous departure from Chelsea should be finalised, pending the results of a stringent medical, just after a fixture when his absence had been so keenly felt.Not the Champions League stroll beyond Qarabag or even the midweek saunter past Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup. But, last Sunday, Arsenal ventured across the capital and earned a point with Shkodran Mustafi, in most people’s eyes, emerging from the stalemate as man of the match. Even accepting that the centre-half is a Germany...