SIMEONE'S SOLDIERS BEATEN AGAIN BUT ATLETICO WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GLORY

The Rojiblancos once again suffered heartbreak in the biggest game in club football but their latest loss should not detract from their remarkable achievements

Diego Simeone fights. That's what he does. He knows no other way. "My parents raised me to play football like a soldier," he explained many years ago. Now he coaches like a general. He inspires 100 per cent loyalty and dedication from every single member of his squad. As he says, "Either you follow me or you don't... It's hard for me to interact with players who don't give themselves completely. The weak don't interest me."
As a result, Simeone has surrounded himself with strong characters; players with "balls so big" that, after a Champions League win over Chelsea in 2014, he felt obliged to thank their mothers for giving birth to them. It is why two years after suffering an agonising loss to Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League that they battled their way back into the biggest game in club football. And it is also why when everything seemed to be going against them in Saturday's tournament decider in Milan, they still managed to force extra-time and then penalties.
Atletico were punished for a slow start at San Siro, conceding a set-piece goal to Sergio Ramos (again!) after just 15 minutes. They dominated both territory and possession for the remainder of regulation time but for a long time, it looked like it would not be their night. Sergio Ramos appeared to have been marginally offside when he got the slightest of touches on Gareth Bale's flick-on, while the same defender twice appeared to get away with handballs in the penalty area.