Simeone is chief villain on night of pantomime
UP and down his arms went, the speed decreasing with every wave. They had only been playing ten minutes at Anfield but Diego Simeone was animatedly making his point.
When Simeone was whipping Atletico Madrid’s fans into a frenzy at the Wanda Metropolitano in the first leg, you could see him hollering ‘vamos!’ repeatedly but the mantra for last night on Merseyside was clear: ‘Mas Despacio!’
The literal translation is ‘more slowly’ and Simeone was making no apology for taking the fizz out of proceedings. Dressed from head to toe in black and sporting heavy stubble, Simeone is a pantomime villain. He looks like a lead from a South American gangster movie — and is just as ruthless.
By hook or by crook, his intention was to lead Atletico into the last eight. He is not a manager who comes to win friends, he only craves results and arguably puts more energy into games now than in his playing days when he knew how to be unscrupulous.
Such were the concerns about Atletico’s ability to deploy the dark arts, Liverpool’s squad held several meetings in the build-up so as not to fall into any of the traps set for them.
Simeone’s teams are able to make these encounters examinations of the mind and temperament, as much as skill, and from those early moments — when the Argentine was squawking at keeper Jan Oblak to take his time — Liverpool knew what they had to do.
A point was made after the first meeting that Atletico’s style would be a difficult watch every week and that Simeone’s constant fury would become tiresome but, make no mistake, they add something to the Champions League. Liverpool have not faced a team of this nature at Anfield for years. Sure, they know how to break things up and make the match as messy as possible but to focus on that solely would do a disservice to many of their fine players.
Take their defence. Last summer they lost the magnificent Diego Godin to Inter Milan and sold Lucas Hernandez to Bayern Munich but Stefan Savic and Felipe have become an equally tirleless partnership in front of Oblak.
Savic made for particularly fascinating viewing. He had a season at Manchester City when they won their first title of the modern era in 2012 but his contribution was minimal and he was soon sold to Fiorentina. What Pep Guardiola would give now for a defender of this class.
He and Felipe repeatedly threw themselves in the way, as Liverpool prodded and probed. They were colossal, human magnets who drew the ball towards them and then smuggled it away.
Simeone knew that defensive excellence would be required and that is what he got before making the final, match-defining change with the introduction of Marcos Llorente at the start of extra-time. His manager (left) did not celebrate when Llorente scored the crucial away goal but when he hit the second, Simeone hurtled down the touchline, smiling for the first time. There is a reason they pay him a king’s ransom.
It is because he makes the difference on nights like this.