Champions League | Bavarian contemplation against Atlético Madrid

52 years ago, Bayern won the precursor to the Champions League for the first time in Brussels. Photo: imago/Horstmüller The first peak will be remembered forever, even if it was climbed half a century ago. With this in mind, FC Bayern Munich will always take on Atlético Madrid with a happy heart. That's not a given, because no one in the European football circus really likes playing against Atlético, the Argentinian Diego Simeone's team characterized by daring guerrilla grandeur. At Atlético, practicality triumphs over the sublime.

Previously simply the national champions' cup, today the Champions League: a staged spectacle and football's money-printing machine. Sven Goldmann looks ahead to the upcoming match day.

In Munich, this street fight in shorts is overshadowed by the memory of 1974, of the first victory in the European Cup, in the final in Brussels. Strictly speaking, there were two finals. In the first, Atlético looked like the sure winner until Katsche Schwarzenbeck scored 1-1 in the final minute. Bayern won 4-0 in the replay. Since then, duels with Atlético have been contemplative gatherings for the Munich supporters. On Tuesday, the delegations from Munich and Madrid will meet on the fourth matchday of the league phase. The final is still far away and yet very close: it will take place next June, also in the Wanda Metropolitano, Atlético's new home.

The stadium was once planned for the Olympic Games, but that hasn't worked out in Madrid in the recent past, just as it did in Berlin recently. The Wanda Metropolitano is big and chic, which doesn't fit the Atlético Madrid myth at all. For half a century, the little people's club played in the middle of the city, at the Estadio Vicente Calderón, a stadium from another era. The free-standing grandstand on the river, tunneled under by the motorway. Opposite there was a concrete horseshoe for the common people, who made more noise during the games than anywhere else in Spain.

The first goal there was scored by Luis Aragonés, the club saint whom they all just called Luis. Luis served Atlético as a player and later as a coach. He found a late and worthy successor in the wild Argentine Diego Simeone. When Simeone waved his arms towards the audience and encouraged them to jump, the statics of the concrete trusses were not good.

That's how it was a good ten years ago when FC Bayern played at the Vicente Calderón for the first and only time. A blue, white and red storm raged through the Calderón. When he finally calmed down a bit after ten minutes, it still hit the Munich goal. Saúl Ñíguez left Thiago, Juan Bernat and Xabi Alonso standing, turned around David Alaba and curled the ball into the goal with his left foot for a 1-0 win.

In the end, Atlético made it to the final in Milan, where they only managed second place against the city's favorite enemy Real. It was Bayern's third semi-final knockout. in a row against a Spanish team. This unpleasant hat trick still stands as a warning sign for Pep Guardiola's time in Munich. Guardiola won the Champions League three times, but never reached an international summit with Bayern.

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