That doesn’t tell the whole story. They were a man down after 10 minutes in the first leg of a winnable tie. It makes sense for the game plan to switch over to a defensive focus, which they do well. After they conceded a goal, they came out and equalized. And then did what needed to be done in the second leg. Why can we not give them credit?
In the La Liga season just past, they essentially played the entire season without a proper striker as Costa was out due to injury for most of the season, and Griezemann was off form. 58 goals is not great but not too bad considering you’re missing 20 goals and say 5 assists from a Costa level striker. Still they finished second to Barcelona and ahead of Real Madrid. What’s the shame in that? I appreciate whatever a team does well, be that on the offensive side of the game or on the defensive side. I prefer an expansive attacking style, but I won’t thumb my nose at a team that can parlay defensive excellence into victories and trophies when they have to, especially considering that Simeone’s side is competing against two of the most expensively assembled attacking teams ever in the history of the game.
