Allegri Embarrassed Simeone in Juventus' Comeback Victory

Cristiano Ronaldo lead Juventus back from the brink in Turin in one of the most remarkable performances in his spectacular career, but Juventus’ unlikely comeback victory had more to do with the two men in the technical area than the men on the pitch.

Atletico Madrid Manager, Diego Pablo Simeone, was simply outclassed by his counterpart Massimiliano Allegri. From kickoff to the fulltime whistle Simeone’s men looked disorganized and in complete disarray by Allegri’s tactics.

The classic strategy in this scenario for Atletico is to be patient and strike on a counterattack. It doesn’t take a tactical genius to realize Allegri would have his team set up to attack which would leave the Bianconeri prone to giving up chances off the counter.

Juventus however, was never caught stretched out and therefore didn’t concede a single counterattacking opportunity.

When you look at Juventus’ position report it appears Atletico should have had multiple chances to counter. Allegri had the high press on as 10 of Juventus’ starting 11 were positioned at or past the centre line. Only Leonardo Bonucci was firmly in his own half.

Atletico on the other hand were camped deep in their own half. Alvaro Morata was the only player positioned well inside Juventus’ half. Even Antoine Griezmann was forced into a much deeper role to help defend. Tactically it makes little sense for Simeone to have Griezmann so deep in his own half defending if they are to try and catch Juventus stretched out. Their chance to score counterattacking was dead and buried because Simeone did not have Griezmann playing higher up.

Atletico’s inability to counter is even more shocking after looking at Giorgio Chiellini’s heatmap. It shows him parked most of the time in Atletico’s half. Surely if Simeone had Griezmann pressing further up he could expose Chiellini’s aggressive positioning. At the end of the match Griezmann shockingly had just 36 touches. Only Mario Mandzukic had less for Juventus. To put it in perspective Ronaldo had 67.

On the few occasions Atletico maintained possession in Juventus’ half they still looked anything, but dangerous. Each time Atletico maintained position the whistling from 40,000 Juventus supporters echoed around the Allianz Stadium. Maybe they got in the heads of the Atletico players because they clearly lacked purpose and conviction with the ball. They passed the ball around before inevitably losing it without registering a shot.

In fact, Atletico had just five shots and none were on target. Their best and only chance to score came near the end of the first half when Morata’s free header flew wildly over the crossbar.

Once Ronaldo scored his second early in the second half Allegri smelled blood in the water. The scoreboard didn’t show it yet, but everyone felt it was just a matter of time before Allegri’s men put the tie to bed. In the 67th minute Allegri subbed on Paulo Dybala. It was assumed Dybala would replace ex-Liverpool player Emre Can, but instead he replaced defender Leonardo Spinazzola.

67' Our first sub of the night:

👏 Spinazzola
🔛 @PauDybala_JR #JuveAtleti [2-0] #UCL #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/nMImE297qz

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 12, 2019

Subbing off Spinazzola for yet another attacker demonstrated how terribly set up Simeone had his team. They never looked threatening and each time they got possession they had no idea what to do with it. Such an aggressive substitution shows Allegri did not fear whatever it was Simeone was tactically trying to accomplish.

Allegri was not done there. In the 80th minute Mario Mandzukic was subbed off for Moise Kean to add fresh legs to their attack. Allegri wasn’t playing for penalties; he was going for the kill in 90 minutes.

Shortly there after it was ironically Atletico who was stretched and disorganized. Kean slipped past Atletico’s defense and nearly placed his shot in the far corner. Moments later one of Simeone’s subs, Angel Correa, was responsible for fouling Federico Bernardeschi in the box which resulted in a penalty. It was a careless challenge that was the end result of Atletico getting stretched again.

Ronaldo placed the ball on the penalty spot and then smashed it into the back of the net completing his historic eighth Champions League hat trick tying Lionel Messi.

10 minutes later the fulltime whistle blew. Allegri successfully managed the Old Lady through to the quarterfinals. Simeone however goes back to Madrid tactically embarrassed and defeated.