In a competition of such fine margins, Atletico Madrid may have given their opponents a head-start for their Champions League tie.
The Spanish champions trained at Old Trafford ahead of their second leg with Manchester United on Tuesday night. The two teams are locked at 1-1 after the first leg, in which Atletico Madrid controlled much of the match but were unable to capitalise on their dominance. Joao Felix’s excellent opener was cancelled out by a late mistake in defence, which Anthony Elanga pounced on to level it up.
According to Mundo Deportivo, more simple mistakes have crept into Atleti’s preparation for the match. After their training session at the stadium, the team bus transported the team back to the team hotel in central Manchester.
Only upon arriving at the hotel did one of the staff members realise that they had forgotten to clean off the tactical instructions they had written on the changing room white board.
One of the staff was sent back to the stadium in a hurry to clean up the mess. Although they were able to reclaim all the materials they had left behind, the article did note that there was no way of knowing if their plans had been examined by staff of the home side while they were gone.
