For Atlético Madrid,
there was no need to get dragged into a tug-of-war away from home.
Simeone did not dare underestimate Dortmund.
Even though Real Madrid had had plenty of problems this season,
their strength was beyond question.
Dortmund had managed to score five goals across two legs against Real Madrid, and even crushed them 4-1 at home.
They had terrifying attacking power.
Lewandowski was a top-class scorer.
Reus was also a top-class player.
On the flanks, Kuba and Großkreutz were both highly distinctive players.
They could run up and down all day and had excellent positioning.
And Dortmund's whole identity was built around that kind of proactive, high-intensity, high-tempo confrontation.
So Simeone had no intention of going toe-to-toe with them in an open attacking battle away from home.
You want to press high?
Then I'll use Shane Carter's long passing to hit the space behind you.
Of course, Dortmund's identity was not just high pressing.
It was also their ferocious attacking style.
Once they had the ball,
they would almost rather try to smash it straight from their own half into Atlético Madrid's goal.
There was very little sideways passing or recycling.
Most of their passes went forward.
It looked incredibly aggressive.
Atlético, by contrast,
if there was no clear long ball behind the defense,
Shane would control the tempo, slow things down, and advance calmly.
If the chance was good, he would play forward.
If not, he would keep possession and wait.
Atlético had no pressing need to kill Dortmund off in the first leg away from home.
After all,
this was a two-legged tie.
Play away first, then home second.
That gave them much more room to maneuver.
Dortmund, naturally, wanted to do what they had done to Real Madrid—
smash Atlético Madrid at home.
They wanted a goal quickly, and as many goals as possible.
It was their home ground, and they wanted not just to win, but to win big,
ideally killing the second-leg suspense in the first match.
Under those completely different ideas,
the two teams naturally approached the match in completely different ways.
....
Playing at home, Dortmund launched a fierce offensive.
They created a lot of attacks.
But Atlético Madrid's defense was very solid.
In Simeone's tactical thinking,
defending was always the top priority.
Especially in a Champions League semifinal of this magnitude,
he put defense first above all else.
Defense wins championships.
With Shane and Gabi acting as two iron gates in midfield,
Koke and Raúl García on the flanks also had to contribute heavily to the defensive work.
Even Griezmann and Costa had defensive duties.
Under those circumstances,
Dortmund had plenty of attacks,
but they never managed to produce many shots that truly threatened Courtois's goal.
Instead,
Atlético's counterattacks forced Weidenfeller into saves several times.
People might not realize it now, but the 32-year-old Weidenfeller had never even been called up by the German national team, and back in the day he had been Lehmann's backup until Lehmann moved to Arsenal and Weidenfeller finally became Dortmund's first-choice goalkeeper.
But shot-stopping had always been his strength.
He was a German keeper who came up with big saves time and time again.
A true anchor of Dortmund's back line.
Dortmund's progress in this season's Champions League
was heavily dependent on Weidenfeller's performances.
A good goalkeeper can be worth half a team.
So when halftime arrived with the score still 0-0,
that was not surprising at all.
In terms of the spectacle,
the first half was not especially exciting.
Neither team produced too many memorable moments.
The match remained deadlocked.
As the players headed down the tunnel,
the commentators summed up the first half.
"Dortmund's attack is a little too direct..."
The German commentator Schmitz criticized Klopp's tactics.
"Atlético Madrid may not be pushing hard, but their attacking threat is actually much greater than Dortmund's."
"Atlético's midfield man Shane is crucial. I haven't seen him cross midfield much in this match, but he still manages to control the tempo."
"Dortmund have had more possession, but it hasn't mattered, because the rhythm of the game is in Atlético Madrid's hands."
"The Spaniards are playing rather conservatively away from home."
In the media area,
German journalists were discussing things among themselves.
Spanish journalists, meanwhile, were fairly satisfied with Atlético's performance.
If it weren't for Dortmund's 4-1 home win over Real Madrid,
they might have been unhappy about Atlético's caution.
But with Madrid as a benchmark,
taking a draw away from home felt like doing the job.
fans, however, were a bit disappointed.
Everyone had been watching this match late into the night, eyes red and sleepy.
But this first half had only made them even drowsier.
Everyone had hoped the game would open up more,
with more exciting moments.
Ideally, it would turn into a goal-fest.
That would have chased the sleep away.
.....
At halftime,
Simeone praised the team's performance.
He did not plan to change the tactics.
If there was a counterattack chance, they would counter.
If there wasn't, they would defend.
Even if they left with a draw from away from home, that would not be a disaster.
As for when a counterattack opportunity would appear...
that was not something he intended to micromanage.
That was naturally Shane Carter's job.
Since arriving last year, Shane had already spent more than a year proving that he had exactly that ability.
He was Atlético Madrid's on-field commander.
In many moments,
even Simeone's instructions from the sideline could not compete with Shane's judgment on the pitch.
Because Shane was the one controlling the tempo and the flow of the game.
.....
"Press! Press! Press! Attack! Attack! Attack!"
Inside the home dressing room,
Klopp, with his full beard and ferocious expression, was grinding his teeth.
His huge mouth looked like it might swallow a player at random at any moment.
Klopp had every reason to be that fired up.
This was their home ground.
Forty-five minutes of 0-0 was forty-five minutes wasted.
He demanded his players show their spirit and throw everything into it.
This was no way to approach the first leg of a two-match knockout tie.
It sounded more like a final motivation speech.
When they came out of the dressing room,
the Dortmund players looked as if they had all been infected with "Klopp Madness Syndrome."
Each of them was clenching his teeth.
Just by looking at them, you could tell:
in the second half,
they were absolutely going to attack even more violently.
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