Simeone seeks first La Liga victory over Barcelona in 300th game as Atletico boss
>> MADRID: The toughness and guile that made Diego Simeone a great player have been there for all to see in his time as manager of Atletico Madrid, and the Argentinian marks his 300th game at the club with a major challenge today against Barcelona.
Simeone’s team has yet to beat Barca in domestic competition, but they broke the 10-year duopoly of Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga in the 2013-14 campaign — the club’s first league crown for 18 years.
Atletico had won only two trophies in the 15 years before Simeone’s arrival and since he became manager in 2011 the outfit has won five.
He has also steered the club to titles in the Europa League, Uefa Super Cup, King’s Cup and Spanish Super Cup, and has presided over two home victories over Barcelona in the last three seasons to reach the Champions League semi-finals.
But Simeone has lost all 16 domestic matches.
The club did however win La Liga with a 1-1 draw against Barca, arguably Simeone’s greatest accomplishment, and they have won 187, drawn 61 and lost 51 of 299 games with him in charge.
Barcelona, yet to get over losing 4-0 at Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League last week, were not convincing in the game that followed, a 2-1 home victory over Leganes following a 90th minute Lionel Messi penalty.
Atletico have, meanwhile, hit their stride, winning 4-1 at Sporting Gijon and then going on a scoring rampage at Bayer Leverkusen to win 4-2 in midweek.
Atletico fans — now with 100,000 members for the first time in their 113-year history — will be rooting for Simeone at the Vincente Calderon stadium because this is likely to be his last chance to do so at the venue with the club moving next season.
“The family doesn’t stop growing, congratulations,” Simeone said on Twitter, referring to the membership milestone.
Meanwhile, Messi scores goals, lots of them. And no team has allowed more of them than Atletico Madrid.
The Barcelona forward will get a chance to add to his impressive tally of 26 career goals against Atletico today, when a victory at the Vicente Calderon Stadium could move the defending champions ahead of Real Madrid for the first time in months.
Barcelona are only one point behind Madrid, but the Spanish league leaders still have a game in hand and face Villarreal tonight.
“There’s still a lot of league left, but we can’t falter anymore,’’ Barcelona defender Jordi Alba said. “We are alive and we are convinced that if we keep doing things right the way, we will have a chance to win the title.’’
Messi has been averaging a goal per game in all competitions and has scored 34 times this season. One of those came against Atletico in this year’s Copa del Rey.
The 29-year-old Argentina captain has not gone two consecutive games without scoring since early September, and is the league’s leading scorer with 19 goals — one more than teammate Luis Suarez. He has scored 10 times in his last nine league games, and has 11 goals in 14 matches overall in 2017.
If Barcelona beats fourth-place Atletico, Messi will earn his 400th career victory with the Catalan club. He has 399 wins, 64 losses and 102 draws in all competitions since his official debut in 2004.