Dubai: Possession, the famous saying goes, is nine tenths of the law.
Someone better tell Diego Simeone.
Bending the rule book his entire playing and managerial career, the Argentine has now booted the ‘obsession with possession’ rule book out of the park.
After having had a fly little tug, flick and snarl at it first, the detractors from his playing days at Inter, Lazio and Atletico Madrid themselves might suggest.
As soon as Antoine Griezmann tucked the ball in the back of the Bayern net, you could tell Bayern knew it was finished.
Yes, they came back with Robert Lewandowski’s header, yes they had other chances — and yes Atletico at times actually did not defend as well as they can. But overall they’ve made an absolute art of that most precious of footballing techniques, defending.
And Bayern knew that the dreaded away goal — scored on the counter attack — was really going to hurt them.
You could see the heads sink when Griezmann accepted the return pass, gave Manuel Neuer the eyes, opened his body up — and slid the ball into the nearpost corner instead.
Big Sam Allardyce — always a proponent of the ancient art — recently suggested that if Simeone employed his tactics in the Premier League he would be labelled dull.
In Europe the Argentine and his side are utterly decisive.
True, there are tiny margins when it comes to top level European football.
Bayern were pegging Atletico back with slick, incisive movement even before Xavi Alonso’s deflected opener — and Thomas Muller’s penalty opportunity should have given them a golden chance.
At half-time though Simeone brought on Yannick Carasco in what seemed would be a 4-3-3. Attacking, it became one, but defensively Atletico sat in a 4-1-4-1 with Saul Niguez in front of the centre-backs and Koke and Gabi battling Bayern in midfield.
And with that Atletico had Bayern at their most vulnerable — when they were attacking.
Atleti had 33 per cent possession against Bayern Munich.
In total, they had less than 25 per cent possession against Barcelona in the quarter-finals and Bayern Munich in the semi-final.
Yet still beat them both.
Against relegation-battling Rayo Vallecano at the end of last month — at home, at the Vicente Calderon — Atletico had just 43 per cent possession. But still won 1-0.
BBC presenter and Leicester City fan Gary Lineker — probably right now trawling Oxford Street for the swishest set of underpants he can find ahead of his much-awaited Match of the Day appearance this Saturday — once famously said that football was “a simple game”.
“Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win,” Lineker opined.
Win on penalties, he might have added, though Thomas Muller’s disappointing first half effort — actually his fourth penalty miss this season — certainly mattered far more than Fernando Torres’ equally tame strike from the spot near the end.
However, there may have to be room — if Atletico’s defenders will allow it, of course — for a modern mantra,
“Have all the ball but still get beaten.”
