The contrast at the heart of the Champions League semi-finals – and what it says about football’s future

Arsenal progressed past Sporting despite an anxious second leg (Reuters)

Except, in the other semi-final, we may well see other evolving trends. If PSG-Bayern is set up to be attackers expressing themselves from end to end, Atletico Madrid-Arsenal looks likelier to be a fraught battle within the margins. The contrast was already visible in the quarter-final that took place at the exact same time as Bayern’s victory over Real Madrid. While Arda Guler and Luis Diaz were exchanging screamers at the Allianz, there weren’t even any goals in Arsenal’s second-leg elimination of Sporting.

And while Atletico Madrid’s defeat of Barcelona was as absorbing as anything seen in Munich, that was more about clashing styles making the game rather than an exhibition of open play. Atletico may not be what they used to be, but a Diego Simeone team is always given to a fight. The latter may be even more pronounced against Arsenal.

Another feeling that may be pronounced is the sense of almost watching different sports depending on the game. The contrast is all the more relevant for the future of the sport, too, since this has been a season characterised by debate about tactical directions. The eventual final may even end up being presented as a game for football’s future.

For now, while one semi-final could define a new roaring 20s in the sport, the other might descend into trench warfare. And yet, as persuasive as such perceptions seem from the very football, there are sources at all the clubs who contend it is nowhere near so simplistic or binary.

Antoine Griezmann has been at the centre of some of the most elegant attacking play in the competition, with Atletico far more progressive than their 2013-16 peak. It is meanwhile only five months since Arsenal overwhelmed Bayern Munich with forward play of their own in a 3-1 group-stage win. And while it already seems like another trend is developing in how little there is to read into the first round, other differences since then should be acknowledged.

It is turning into an altogether more testing end to the season for Arsenal than expected (Getty)

Most of all, there are the demands on the clubs. While Arsenal and Atletico have had to toil through testing seasons against rivals with superior resources, both Bayern and PSG have been able to cruise to their league titles. The newly crowned German champions, earning over €300m more in revenue than Borussia Dortmund, sealed the title last weekend by going 15 points clear of their closest opposition. PSG have meanwhile so beaten down Ligue 1 through their power from a Qatari sportswashing project that a mere six-point lead over Lens is welcomed as closer than usual.

Such superiority affords a lot more space to keep players physically and mentally fresh so as to play more idealised football. As one source at this level insists, “it’s drastically underestimated how dependent modern systems are on full capacity”. “Any drop-off or notable absences and all of the links in your team go.”

Such differences have also transmitted in another crucial way. Bayern have won the Champions League as recently as 2020. In that very final, they beat PSG, who finally got over the line last season. Such victories bring a deeper assurance that Arsenal and Atletico don’t currently possess. They’re still agitating to get there.

In fact, they’re now probably the two biggest clubs never to have to have won it. That reality is more acute given what has happened in recent seasons.

Atletico have lost two recent finals in painful fashion and must banish those memories (Getty)

The Champions League has become Atletico’s great quest under Diego Simeone. They lost two finals to Real Madrid in 2014 and 2016 - and in the most painful manners at that - and now find themselves having gone further than their great local rivals for the first time in Simeone’s entire era.

Mikel Arteta is meanwhile just as determined to become the first manager to finally deliver the Champions League to Arsenal. Such an ambition already has a greater importance given the growing risk that Arsenal don’t actually end the season as English champions. The huge pressure to deliver one of the two major trophies is already there.

And that pressure can produce reactions that intend more control, as has already been discussed a lot with Arsenal this season. It’s like the closer they get to glory the more Arteta tries to take more control, actually just constricting the team. By the same token, sources at Atletico who love Simeone say he constantly tries to progress but it is like he can’t fully escape an inherent conservatism any more. He can’t rely on a defender like Diego Godin any more, since the game doesn’t produce as many. Perhaps one of the most prominent, Gabriel, is at Arsenal.

That does condition a certain outlook. The Atletico-Arsenal semi-final is going to be driven by this agitation, PSG-Bayern by affirmation. That isn’t to say it will be any less absorbing. At this stage, it’s the stakes that really make the game. The prize, an appearance in club football’s greatest stage, produces all sorts of responses. Teams, ultimately, will do almost anything to get there.

PSG and Bayern are expected to bring the kind of free-flowing football which has lit up the knockout rounds so far (Getty)

They will here be guided by different approaches, but from different contexts. It isn’t necessarily a fight for football’s future. Barcelona 1994 were still more influential than the Fabio Capello Milan that thrashed them. The present, this week, is nevertheless going to involve very different tests that are going to immerse both sides. There’s little like it, especially when the games are set to be so unalike.