Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan’s column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
I am delighted that Atletico Madrid will meet Real Madrid in a Uefa Champions League final again. It's a chance for my old team to get revenge for 2014, when they were a minute away from winning a first European Cup. They had been a minute away in 1974, too. Don't you think it should be third time lucky?
But what a final and what a stadium. I played in the San Siro, that huge 80,000-capacity home of AC Milan and Inter, which looks like a giant spaceship from outside. The pitch is part artificial, part grass. It will be fast if it rains, which may suit Real Madrid.
See more on the Uefa Champions League finalists:
• Gallery: Gareth Bale and Real Madrid power past Manchester City into 14th European Cup final
• Andy Mitten: As Real Madrid show, England has the glamour but Spain has the glory
• Diego Forlan: Diego Simeone has Atletico squeezing every inch of advantage out of margins
• Richard Jolly: Atletico Madrid, with so much achieved under Diego Simeone, close in on greatest triumph
But then the Atletico fans will be louder, I’m sure, because they’re wonderful, a little bit crazy and as passionate as the fans we have in South America.
This is a golden age, not just for Madrileno football, but for Spanish football. They are by a long way the best teams in Europe, despite not being the richest. Atletico’s rise has been incredible. They are a better team with more talent in the squad than the one in 2014, when they won the Spanish league.
Diego Simeone is a better manager; he's more experienced, though I don't agree with him when he says the final isn't viewed as a chance for revenge. Of course it is and every Atletico player who played in Lisbon two years ago wants revenge. Do you think they want to go through the same emotions again in the town they call home? No.
Because Atletico have a settled system, people think their team has barely changed. It has. Just five of the team who started in Lisbon are still at the club compared to seven of the Real Madrid players. None of the seven Atletico players who started on the bench are still there, four of the Madrid players are still there.
For Atletico, that’s a 12-player change in two years, a big shift. And yet the team still plays with the same style, as directed by Simeone, dominating games by having a strong defence.
The five who did play: Juanfran, Diego Godin, Filipe Luis, Koke and Gabi, will be desperate to win. All are better players, all as driven as their manager. Koke and Gabi have become big stars. Koke is really good at keeping the ball, and at set pieces. Did you see his ball which broke Bayern Munich’s attack and led to Atletico’s goal in Madrid?
Gabi, another one of my former teammates, is everywhere; he is the engine of the team. He helps the defence and the attack. He is aggressive, the perfect captain. Like Koke, he is from Madrid, an Atleti fan who came through the youth system.
The new additions have really added to them. The squad is stronger, but while I was worried when Thibaut Courtois left for Chelsea, Jan Oblak has shown himself to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Antoine Griezmann is such an exciting player who, like most of Atletico’s side, are capable of playing in many positions. Yet one of the best stories this season has been Fernando Torres.
I was bought by Atletico to replace Torres in 2007. He left the club he supported because he wanted to win trophies. Atletico had not won a trophy since 1996, so that was understandable. Now he is back at a team which is in a better position to win trophies than any of the other clubs he has played for.
Earlier this season, I read a lot about how Torres wouldn’t be staying beyond this season, that he was a substitute behind other strikers. When he scored his 100th Atletico goal, there seemed to be a feeling that he had done everything for the club. It had been a long time coming, but he did reach 100. Yet since then he hasn’t stopped scoring. He is in magnificent form, playing every week and scoring important goals. I see a player high on confidence playing for the team he loves in the city he calls home. He is motivated, trusted by his manager and playing in a stable and organised team which makes it easy for any striker.
I saw a programme on a South American TV channel earlier which said that the final will be 70/30 in Real Madrid’s favour. I don’t agree. I think it’s so finely balanced, with both teams having strengths and weaknesses. I’m a follower of American football and I’m drawn to the maxim that if a team with a great offence meets one with a great defence, the defence usually comes out on top.
Madrid are noted for their attacking players, especially Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, but when I watched them against Manchester City I saw a team playing with caution and a solid defence which didn’t concede over 180 minutes.
In Manchester, they maybe needed to do that with Ronaldo out and away from home. In the Bernabeu, they played with caution because they had to; a goal for City would have killed them. I was disappointed with City, though, I thought they would have more of a go to try to win the game. It didn’t help them losing their captain, Vincet Kompany, early in the game. That and Madrid had control, just like Atletico have in matches.
Zinedine Zidane, the Madrid manager, has done well; he is smart. He is not playing the type of football maybe people think his side should play, so that makes the final even more intriguing.
One of these two heavyweights will win. One of the sets of fans gathered by the rival fountains within two blocks of each other in Madrid will go home disappointed. This time, I hope it’s not Atleti.
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