Why Leicester have landed their mirror image in Atletico Madrid - and the worst possible draw

Leicester were dubbed the Cinderella of the Champions League last eight in Spain. Drawing Atletico Madrid is bit like being paired up with the ugly sisters – both of them.

It’s hard to think of a worse draw for Craig Shakespeare’s side. It will be low on glamour and high on difficulty; it will also be a large dose of their own medicine.

You could almost ask: ‘What’s the difference between Leicester and Atletico Madrid?’ One has incredible spirit, defends for their lives, puts substance over style and tends to bruise opponents into submission… and the other one won the Premier League last season.

Atletico Madrid ‘did a Leicester’ before ‘doing a Leicester’ was even a thing. When they won the league in 2014 they did so against all the odds. Spanish football went nine months saying: ‘It won’t last’ and ‘Credit to them but they will be overtaken on the line’. But it did last; they were not overtaken, and although it was the 10th Liga title in their history it was still one for the underdog, such is the huge financial difference between themselves and Real Madrid and Barcelona, who they drew with at the Camp Nou on the last day of the season.

They won that title playing 4-4-2, stringing together vital 1-0 wins when the going got tough and with Diego Simeone playing a straight bat through a thousand and one press conferences when he was asked if they thought they could indeed lift the trophy.

There was no ‘Dilly-ding, dilly-dong’ from Diego Simeone. His mantra was ‘one game at a time’. A cliche in English maybe, but in Spain – where it’s ‘partido a paritido’ – it was quite the novelty. It became his calling card as week after week his team ground out another win. His players ended up saying the same phrase in their post-match interviews. Fans even finished up printing ‘Partido a partido’ t-shirts.

Simeone’s current Atletico side has plenty of survivors from that successful title campaign. Most importantly Uruguayan captain Diego Godin is still holding the team together from the centre of defence and Gabi is still running midfield. Around them there is a little more flair than there once was with Saul and Koke the creative force in midfield and Yannick Carrasco a real handful. Leicester’s defence will also find Antoine Griezmann and Kevin Gameiro a far greater test than Sevilla’s Wissam Ben Yedder and Stevan Jovetic.

Atletico will be mentally tougher than Sevilla too. It may be an advantage to again be playing the second game at the King Power but Simeone’s side have no flaky Samir Nasri to disappear down his own rabbit hole and only pop up to get himself sent off. A character like Nasri wouldn’t get past first interview at Simeone’s academy. They will be tough and if they have any sort of lead when they arrive for the second game, they will defend it with their lives.

Atletico do have to go to the Santiago Bernabeu four days before the first leg. That may play into Leicester’s hands because even though the league is gone for them, Simeone will still feel obliged to pick a reasonably strong team against the neighbours. They are then home to the worst side in the league before the second leg. Simeone will be able to play a second string against bottom of the table Osasuna as he prepares for the trip to England.

All in all it’s a very tough draw. It does mean Leicester fans will be able to sample the delights of the Vicente Calderon in what will be the penultimate European game before they knock it down.

It has none of the plush luxury of the Bernabeu but it will be noisy. For atmosphere there is nothing better in Spain. That will help Jamie Vardy and company, but it will also help the home side as they try to make it to the final for the third time in the last four years.