Diego Simeone's exceptionally well drilled Atletico Madrid deservedly won the Europa League, ousting a talented Olympique de Marseille side 3-0 in Lyon.
Clinical, efficient and effective in scoring three goals, they attacked with dynamism and verve to pose a huge threat to Rudi Garcia's men throughout. Their robust defensive performance was equally impressive, however, as they astutely implemented Simeone's strategy with the utmost commitment, intelligence and intensity.
Pressing with equal measures of aggression and smarts, Atleti curved, angled and directed their pressing so cohesively, thus allowing them to block passing lanes and direct their opponents towards the sideline, where they could ramp up their pressure and use the touchline as an extra defender. In these situations, they way they shifted their block towards the ball near side so rapidly, only enhanced their capacity to make life as difficult as possible for OM to bring the ball infield.
Moreover, by orienting their body positions and postures to be excellently balanced to move in any direction, plus by performing constant head checks to get a regularly updated mental imagery of their surroundings, served as further highlights. Their wonderfully spaced and staggered setup, in combination with the terrific knowledge of each others' roles, certainly played its part in them targeting the right zones to prevent Marseille from building up successfully too.
A perfect testament to their application and approach arose for their crucial opening goal, where Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa initially pressed OM's two centre-backs, which forced a pass back to goalkeeper, Steve Mandanda. The Marseille central defenders of Adil Rami and Luiz Gustavo then split to the edges of their box to stretch the two Atleti pressers. Importantly, though, Griezmann kept his access to Rami and Costa harried Mandanda, while vitally keeping Gustavo in his cover shadow. Midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa then presented himself as central option, but Mandanda's pass was rough courtesy of Costa's pressure, causing the Cameroonian to miss-control.
Gabi was alert to this and duly swept in to take possession. Then, due to Marseille's centre-halves having split wide, Griezmann subsequently had vast central space to receive Gabi's pass to score.
Following their awesome triumph, praise was justifiably lavished on the masterful Simeone, with the win seeing him claim his sixth title with Los Rojiblancos in eight years with the club. In addition, by obtaining yet another clean sheet, his spectacular statistics in this category now mean his Atleti have now kept 200 clean sheets in his 377 games in charge.
Relentless, tough, structurally sound and dangerous going forward, Simeone's unbelievably hard to beat side proved far too strong for Marseille on a night that will live long in the hearts and minds of the Atleti faithful.
1 Copa Del Rey victory.
2 Europa League trophies.
2 Champions League finals.
Diego Simeone doing an incredible job.
