The loathing was palpable. "Today ugly footballAtleticoplayed against the best football in the world," declared Arturo Vidal, defeat bringing not admiration but resentment. "The only time they saw the ball was for the goal.The best does not always win in football, like today. They are not deserved finalists."Vidal's assessment had come immediately after his Bayern Munich had been knocked out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage by Atletico Madrid in May. There in Bavaria, Bayern had won 2-1 on night, letting go of a barrage of shots and having almost complete ownership of the ball in a performance of extreme dominance. And yet it was they who were heading out of the competition.Atletico had hustled another giant, and those giants hate nothing more than a hustle. You sense something's growing here because of it.It's often said that rivalries are born through either proximity or familiarity, and while that's largely true, there's another layer that matters. Though local affairs are edgy and though frequent ones are riddled with contempt, it's the rivalries in which contrast exists between their clubs' identities that often stand out.The Madrid derby is an example in this respect, foes separated by ideology and history, by mentality and demographic. Atletico vs. Bayern has the makings of something along these lines, but it wasn't born in 2016.Prior to their meeting in last season's Champions League, Atletico and Bayern had only met once before, in the 1974 European Cup final atHeysel Stadium.Atleti had gone ahead through Luis Aragones deep into added time, seemingly certain to go where they'd never gone before. But in a way that has defined Atleti since, Bayern'sHans-Georg Schwarzenbeck struck in the dying seconds, forcing a replay that would be played two days later and thatBayern would win 4-0. It's a meeting that irrevocably shaped both clubs.For Bayern, that win was the first of three straight European Cup triumphs, propelling them into the continent's aristocracy, riding a generation led by Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller. For Atleti, though, that night in Brussels and its despair consumed them; they became the club that saw themselves as cursed, the one that unfortunate things happen to. "El Pupas," the jinxed one, they became known as.There are still elements of that, but it's changing. Atletico might have lost two Champions League finals in three seasons in the cruelest fashion, as only they could, but in the broader picture, they're growing out of being the jinxed one.Diego Simeone has transformed them, turningLos Colchoneros into Europe's rebels, smashing through supposed ceilings while giving a figurative finger to the rest.It's why there's something building between Atletico and Bayern. To the men from the Vicente Calderon, the Bavarians represent one third of football's hegemonic trio, that which is desperate to keep challengers down and ensure their own status; to Bayern, Atleti stand as the dark antithesis of who they've become, rising out of debt and chaotic management through third-party ownership and gritty, unrefined football.They might have only met three times in history, but that clash in identity has bred ill-feeling. They've expressed it, too.In 2014-15, after Atleti had been knocked out of Europe in the quarter-finals by Real Madrid, Bayern CEOKarl-Heinz Rummenigge stuck the boots in, pleased that his club wouldn't draw that of Simeone in the semis."The last thing I wanted was to have played against Atletico," he said. "Football is about joy and entertainment and that [is] something the club does not believe in."Simeone responded cunningly in a press conference, sayingRummenigge the player "would have fitted in perfectly at Atletico."It hasn't stopped since.Following his club's loss to Barcelona in the first leg of last season's Champions League quarter-finals, where Fernando Torres was sent off, Atleti presidentMiguel Angel Gil Marin found time to target his Bayern counterpart. Rummenigge is head of the European Club Association, and Gil Marin wasn't holding back, his accusation clear."Rummenigge wants the teams he thinks are in charge to go through to the semi-finals, and he'll end up getting just that," he said, according toAS. "Football cannot be a game where the big teams dictate the rules." No one, then, will have taken more joy than him when Atleti dumped Bayern out of Europe last season."We feel cheated," fumedRummenigge to ZDF (h/t AS).Now they have each other again, and they're hardly thrilled. When the balls came out at last month's Champions League draw and Atleti were placed in Group D with the Bundesliga giants,Gil Marin made the classic gun-to-the-head gesture. It's not just that Bayern are formidable but that there's a bitterness rising. And the complexion of this duel is growing ever more intriguing.For three seasons until this summer, Bayern led by Pep Guardiola had stood in the ideological space Atleti were rejecting. Expansive, modern, sophisticated, JohanCruyffist to the extreme, the lot from the Allianz Arena grew into the ultimate anti-Atleti; Atleti grew into an anti-Bayern. Guardiola is now gone, but his replacement doesn't take any edge out of this affair.Carlo Ancelotti has gone to Bayern following a stint Real Madrid. The Italian is the man who dealt Simeone his biggest blow, in Lisbon in 2014. When it comes to Spain, Ancelotti is Real Madrid through-and-through, a man who was adored by large sections of the fanbase and who was immensely popular with his players at the SantiagoBernabeu. Ancelotti rarely got the better of Simeone, but he did in the biggest games, and the Argentinian won't have forgotten.In two years in the Spanish capital, the Italian never defeated his Atleti counterpart in the league. His record against Simeone read one draw and three losses, one of them a 4-0 annihilationat the Vicente Calderon in early 2015. The same season,Atleti pinched the Spanish Super Cup from Real and dumped them out of the Copa del Rey, but Real returned the favour in Europe. They always do it in Europe.Earlier this month, then,Marca asked Ancelotti whether Atleti represented both his high and low points in Madrid."True true," he said. "La Decima was special. It was something full of emotion, and the spirit that existed in the group was spectacular.The 4-0 at the Calderon, we arrived without five starters. The match started badly and ended worse, so yes two very mixed feelings."On Wednesday, Ancelotti returns to the Vicente Calderon. It's a place that has tormented him"things have not gone well for me there," he admitsand this time he will arrive with Bayern, the club still seething from getting Atletico-ed in May.From that meeting, there have been subtle changes on either side with respect to the squads, and a major change in one dugout. But the essence of each club remains, clashing with the other, the sense of the rancour mutual.They may have only met three times before, but that doesn't matter. There are the makings of a fierce rivalry here: Atleti fighting for a new order;Bayern ready to enforce the power of the existing. Follow @TimDCollins
Click here to read full news..
