Atletico Madrid have not been the same force that they were last season, as they have struggled to score goals on a regular basis this time around. A lot of it has to do with the numerous personnel changes that have happened in the summer. Star striker Diego Costa, who contributed most of the goals last season is now playing for Chelsea, is being felt since Mario Mandzukic is not exactly the same kind of player. In order to continue getting the results, Atletico have had to modify their style of football in the last few months.

They have been getting more number of goals from set pieces than most of the teams from Spain or Italy. This, in turn, has led to the criticism of the team’s style of football from various quarters. Due to the Spanish league being highly technical, teams do not often resort to physical style of football. Their manager, Diego Simeone, who was recently voted as the best manager in Spain last season, says that he is happy with the threat from set pieces and he finds no in using them to the benefit of his team. Atletico managed a 1-0 win over Getafe in the latest league encounter. Summer signing Mandzukic scored the only goal of the game in the 40th minute.

“It happened again today. It’s a tool in football, it seems like it’s a bad thing to score goals like this. It’s normal to have these types of options. After playing three games this week, it’s not an easy thing to score eight goals and keep three clean sheets,” said Atletico manager. They have been finding it difficult to match the exploits of last season. It is not surprising that they are fifth in the table, but they are just two points below Barcelona.

Tuesday was a night for the underdogs as Atletico Madrid and Manchester United managed to achieve great results from their first leg matches against Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively. The two teams were coming into the first leg quarter-final Champions League matches as the overwhelming underdogs to get a win. This is because they will be up against far illustrious opponents – and with better form as well – in the form of Barcelona and Bayern Munich. However, Atletico Madrid have been full of surprises this campaign and they came up with another after managing a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou.

Because of the away goal, it has put Diego Simeone’s in a great position ahead of the second leg. Even though they have lost star striker Diego Costa due to injury, it has put the club in a great position to reach the semifinals of the competition. The Vicente Calderon has never been one of the favourite grounds for Barcelona. Diego Simeone has managed to transform the fortunes of Atletico Madrid, as they are one of the teams in with a shout to win the title along with Barcelona and Real Madrid. After the 1-1 draw in which Neymar grabbed the equaliser, Simeone said that he was very happy with the result.

“I’m very happy with this team, this was the most decisive game of the two years I’ve been at the club and we are still going, showing enormous heart, and the way we fought makes me so proud, and I’m sure the fans are proud too. I’m delighted we were able to compete with Barcelona, you don’t earn the right to do that in a day, you earn it with hard work and today we showed we can compete with them,” said the former player, who also came up against his former adversary Gerardo Martino.

Atletico Madrid managed to get a crucial away win in the first leg of the Champions League last 16 match against AC Milan, as they also set foot into the quarter-finals of the competition. This is pleased the manager Diego Simeone, who says that the club played an intelligent game at the San Siro. AC Milan came into the match in a very bad shape after recently changing their manager following a poor season. Former midfielder Clarence Seedorf had taken over from Massimiliano Allegri, but results have shown little promise ahead of the match.

However, Atletico were under the pressure from Milan throughout the encounter. The Italian club created a lot of opportunities over the course of the 90 minutes, but they were unable to take any of them. On the other hand, Atletico managed to take advantage of some poor defending in the latter stages of the encounter to score crucial away goal – and subsequently get the win – through Diego Costa. The 25-year-old has been impressive form this season and he continued to demonstrate his importance to the team with a crucial goal, which could potentially take the Spanish club to the quarter-finals of the competition.

Atletico have done extremely well to maintain their momentum throughout the season and they are also challenging for the title in the Spanish league.

“We knew we were going to face an intense Milan side, especially in the first half. In the first half we lost too many balls in midfield and suffered a little. We didn’t play with the right tempo. In the second half we changed, we blocked (Mario) Balotelli and Kaka better and we started to control midfield. We kept ourselves in the game and the goal we scored allowed us to get the result we were hoping for,” said Simeone.