Atletico Madrid can alter football landscape with Champions League win

It was Zinedine Zidane who really brought home the extent of his incredible managerial ascent, from preparing Real Madrid's reserve team to preparing for a Champions League final in little under five months. Enjoying a moment of reflection in his press conference in Milan, his mind drifted back to 2014, when Real Madrid last met Atletico Madrid in an occasion such as this. "Before the final in Lisbon Carlo Ancelotti said, 'I hope you experience this as head coach',” Zidane told a packed press conference. “And here we are."

Few would have thought it would come so soon. But the assistant coach who charged along the touchline in jubilation just two years ago as Madrid won their 10th European Cup is now the boss in charge of delivering the 11th. It still seems somewhat surreal that Zidane could find himself sitting in this seat, in this press conference, ahead of this match at the end of the 2015-16 club season.

Superceding his coaching adventures, Zidane is rather more famously the man who plucked the ball out of the inky Glasgow night sky in 2002 and careered home the most heavenly of volleys to win Real Madrid's ninth European Cup. Real Madrid are the elite club of European football and Zidane is their icon - a totemic figure who could become the seventh man to win the competition as both player and manager.

The contrast to his opposite number is a marked one. Simeone was Atleti manager on that night two years ago. He has paid his dues in management with multiple roles in Argentina and one abortive spell in Italy with Catania - rather than being parachuted in by a president obsessed with star quality. Now he shares a stage with a man he once battled on the pitch in the Madrid derbies of the mid 2000s - in coaching terms at least, the senior figure.

There are further contrasts which reveal something significant about the men and the clubs they represent, the clubs which will contest the final in Milan. Zidane the graceful and balletic galactico, a world record signing embodying the privileged, monied Madrid; Simeone the snarling midfield grafter, the working-class hero fighting for every ball on the banks of the Manzanares.

The Madrid city dichotomy is well established but while Zidane has operated largely in the shadows, the Argentinian has been avidly disassembling Madrid’s fortress of privilege these past few years. He has ended the royal club's long domestic supremacy over their rivals across the city. But as Zidane can relate, it is a different story in the competition which defines Real Madrid more than any other. The Decima made sure of that.

Could things be different this year? Simeone revels in his anti-establishment image and Atleti have already dispatched two of the three most celebrated super-clubs in football to get here, defeating Barcelona and Bayern Munich in successive rounds. Toppling Real Madrid, to win their first European Cup final at the third time of asking, would be a hat-trick on two fronts.

Atleti, and Simeone, are as battle-hardened as they come heading into Saturday’s final in Milan. By contrast, Madrid and Zidane had a rather less taxing route, seeing off Roma, Wolfsburg and Manchester City. Zidane gave a passable impression of Simeone at times in his press conference, repeating the words “ready” and “prepared” like a mantra, as well as exhorting to players to “run, run, run, run” when the whistle blows at San Siro. But Atleti’s application and hunger cannot be replicated. It is what has made them possibly the best defensive unit on the planet, conceding only 18 goals in La Liga this season and just six en route to the Champions League final.

Atleti have to play with such intensity, drawing on every ounce of talent, just to ensure a level playing field against the biggest clubs in Europe - clubs they continually unseat. And as much as the swaggering Simeone has disrupted the status quo, there were repeated reminders on Friday that he was unable to do so on the biggest stage of all.

A Champions League final is never going to be overshadowed, but so persistent were the questions about 2014 and Lisbon, when only a late, late header from Sergio Ramos took Atleti to extra-time, it seemed as much of the focus was being drawn towards the recent past as it was the very immediate future.

Ramos, whose injury-time header rescued Madrid, was asked time and again about his recollections of that night and its importance to the here and now. “I wouldn’t change anything in the script from that year; I have wonderful memories,” said Ramos. But, added Real Madrid’s captain: “We don’t want to be remembering things when we’re trying to achieve something else: 2014 may as well be a film.”

Even if only six of the 18-man Atleti squad remain from that night - an indication in itself of the upheaval Simeone has dealt with so impressively, keeping Atleti at the top of the European game - it is a big factor in Saturday’s match, whatever the players may feel they have to say in public. “The past is not worth considering now,” said Gabi. “We've beaten Real Madrid so many times, except for that final. That's the past now, what matters for us is the future.”

It is true. Simeone has enjoyed five wins and four draws in his past 10 matches against Real Madrid. It is a near complete dereliction of the inferiority complex the club were saddled with for decades, and during his own time as a player at the Vicente Calderon. But there is still one sphere in which Madrid are supreme and winning the Undecima would confirm it again. If Atleti can win their first European Cup final at the third time of asking, though, it would truly alter the football landscape in the Spanish capital.

“Real Madrid are a great club, one of the best,” said Fernando Torres, a winner of seven major finals, but never with his boyhood club. “We share a city and we're excited about overturning history. We're excited about writing a new page in the history of Atletico Madrid. A lot has been achieved in the last few years but we can't just think about that – this is a major opportunity. History is changing all the time, we have the opportunity to write it and we will.”

Atleti cannot be discounted. Indeed they could well be favourites. But when it comes to the Champions League, Real Madrid, and their player-turned-coach, have a particular affinity with history.