Simeone wary of Vardy and Leicester, but Griezmann gives Atletico the edge

Since roughly the midway point of an improbable
march to the Premier League title last season,
people have been talking loudly about not
underestimating Leicester City, only for their
actions to often whisper gently beneath the bellow
of their words.
Now it is the turn of Diego Simeone to pick up the
script, although Atletico Madrid's head coach is not
one for platitudes and brings an authenticity few
can match.
There are few reference points in modern football
for Leicester's Premier League heist, but Atletico's
besting of the mighty Real Madrid and Barcelona to
win LaLiga in 2013-14 is the clearest one - they
even had the temerity to seal glory on the final day
at Camp Nou.
Two well-drilled and tireless banks of four, livewire
attackers and a collective toiling successfully to
outmanoeuvre better resourced foes. There are
obvious parallels between Leicester and Atletico's
success stories, prompting a notable pre-match
kinship before their Champions League quarter-
final first leg at the Vicente Calderon on
Wednesday.
"We know that the game will be very tough against
a rival that is similar to us," Simeone said after
Atletico made a now customary nuisance of
themselves in the Madrid derby on Saturday,
Antoine Griezmann snatching a 1-1 draw at the
Santiago Bernabeu.
The obvious difference between the two is that,
while Leicester lulled dangerously after conquering
their Everest, Atletico continued their grind under
Simeone.
Further major honours have not followed but they
are two-time Champions League runners-up,
remain the opponents Madrid and Barca least
relish facing and are wedged into a seat at
Europe's top table having muscled in uninvited.
Simeone knows better than most what Leicester's
journey has required and has good reason to fear a
revitalised forward talisman.
"I like him, I really rate him as striker," he said at a
pre-match news conference when discussing
Jamie Vardy.
"He is the kind of powerful striker Atletico have
had. He gives the team a lot of depth, and makes
life difficult for defenders to get the ball out.
"He is very dangerous and if we make any
mistakes, he will penalise that."Vardy scored for the first time in 10 matches as
Claudio Ranieri's reign ended with a bitter taste
and recriminations at Sevilla.
The England international has five goals in seven
games under elevated successor Craig
Shakespeare and drove Atletico's LaLiga
counterparts to distraction when they were dumped
out of the Champions League before a baying King
Power Stadium last month.
It means a ratio of 0.71 goals per game with
Shakespeare in charge for Vardy, set against 0.22
under Ranieri this season and even above his 0.63
from the title-winning campaign.
This is replicated across the board, with the 30-
year-old producing more shots on target, creating
more chances, attempting, and completing, more
dribbles and weighing in with a couple of assists
since Ranieri left the scene.
An added benefit of Leicester's European run is it
delays a more lengthy inquest into what on earth
Vardy and company were playing at until late
February. If Atletico's players did something
similar under Simeone, you could reasonably fear
for their well-being.
Here lies the crux. While Leicester at their best
disarm technically superior opponents by
outworking them, Atletico will match them for blood
and sweat and possess one of world football's
most coveted attackers to boot.
Griezmann has 23 goals this season, without a
penalty among them, and boasts a superior
shooting accuracy to each of Barcelona's "MSN"
and Real Madrid's "BBC". He also outstrips
LaLiga's marquee forward lines in term of
possession recoveries (170) and has created more
chances than Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Gareth Bale - every inch the Simeone superstar.
Reportedly Manchester United's prime close-
season transfer target, Griezmann should find a
Leicester defence without captain Wes Morgan and
breached four times at Everton on Sunday to his
liking. But he will not under-estimate them -
Simeone would not allow it for a second.