sport news THE EURO FILES: Draw opens up for Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid eight years ... trends now
When Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone celebrated his side's epic win over Inter Milan on Wednesday night there were mud stains on the knees of his trousers.
He won't sweat the dry cleaning bill ahead of Sunday's game of the weekend against Barcelona because, as revealed in the six-part Amazon documentary made about him in 2022, he has an entire wardrobe full of identical black suits.
He's incredibly superstitious and you wouldn't back against him making sure he puts the cleaned suit from Wednesday on again for the rest of a Champions League competition that has now opened up nicely for him to reach the final.
The man in black has been the top-earning coach in Europe for most of his 12 years at Atletico. The argument that he isn't worth it has always tripped on the same stone — he earns the club far more than they have to pay him.
Atletico, beaten in the 2016 Champions League final, have won 81 European Cup games and 50 of them have come under Simeone. Only three coaches have won more European Cup games at the same club: Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United (102), Arsene Wenger at Arsenal (83) and Pep Guardiola at Manchester City (56).
Diego Simeone has an entire wardrobe full of black suits and won't sweat on making one of them dirty
There were mud stains on the manager's trousers come full time of his side's Champions League win over Inter Milan
Atletico Madrid now have another chance at European glory, eight years on from their Champions League final heartbreak
The win over Inter earned Atletico another €10million, and unless his team lose both quarter-final legs against Borussia Dortmund, and Barcelona win both their quarter-final games against PSG, then it will be Atletico and not Barça who play in the 2025 Club World Cup, bringing in another €50m for Atletico.
You can dislike his football —although the old 'score one and defend' style has long gone — and his occasional crotch-grabbing goal celebrations might offend some. But his achievements at Atletico cannot be questioned.
He was also right to complain for so long about the away goals rule which, had it not been scrapped, would have seen his team beaten on Wednesday.
That victory on penalties is right up there with his greatest hits. And maybe the genesis of it came four days earlier when his team lost 2-0 to third from bottom Cadiz who hadn't won in their previous 23 games.
The penalty shootout win is up there with some of the Argentine's best victories as a manager
That loss put Simeone in his preferred territory — if no one gave his team much of chance before, because they were playing against an Inter team that had won 12 out of 12 in 2024, then after the defeat the cause was declared hopeless.
No one has mastered the art of utilising underdog status better, and Atletico produced a phoenix from the ashes performance.
His 32-year-old captain Koke, who has been average for much of the season, ran 17.5km and set-up the two goals. Antoine Griezmann returned
