"There is always a first time in life for everything," Diego Pablo Simeone recited yesterday morning, a few hours before traveling to Barcelona to look back at that indecipherable Camp Nou. There he was kept victorious in 2014, with the crown tight, but has never managed to win. Now, the League, as in the afternoon of that header by

Godín

that was worth a draw and opened wide the doors of heaven for Atlético, goes back to a great extent due to what happens between those four walls of the Barça enclosure, whose remodeling, as has happened with the Santiago Bernabéu, is imminent.

Today, as in 2014, Atlético is leading, but the situation is different, with the end of the League tighter than ever. Crucial day. Barça does not give up in its fight for the title. Madrid sharpens its fang to forget Europe, with the threat of Sevilla, in a match that takes place a day later, with the advantage of knowing what happened with the other rivals.

Simeone knows like few others what a first time is.

Under his tutelage, the painful and indestructible streak against Real Madrid was broken with digging, 13 years later.

It happened in an indelible Cup final for the rojiblanco spirit, on the canvas of the Bernabéu.

And not so long ago, last fall, he finally defeated Barcelona in the league, something new in his extensive service record.

The curse of the Camp Nou, like that in front of the neighbor, is not only his thing.

The matter has been entrenched for a long time.

The last affront dates from 2006 (1-3), the year and shortly after his departure from Atlético to Racing, to rush his last sips as a footballer.

That Torres double

Of course, the reality of that rojiblanco team has nothing to do with that of this one. From Tunisia, where he directs Club Sportif Sfaxien,

Pepe Murcia

looks back. That February 5, a month after taking over from

Carlos Bianchi

, and with Atlético trying to escape the abyss (fifth from the tail), he surprised a team,

Rijkaard's.

, which would end up lifting the Champions League in Paris after winning the League. “That triumph really got us out of a very tight and even scary situation. It helped us to take an important step ", he details in conversation with this newspaper, while drawing aloud the intrahistory of that duel:" We knew that the ball would belong to Barça and that if we were a team with an important middle block, we could go out to the backlash. We had it prepared and it went well.

Fernando

(Torres) scored two and another

Maxi

. Petrov was very fast on the back.

That afternoon, Messi, who woke up with the '30' on his back and 18 years old, left his place at rest to the French

Giuly

. The Argentine is the only one who transcends the passage of time in the duels between the Catalans and the rojiblancos. 15 years and 42 games later, he has riddled Atlético with 24 goals. 17 of them in 15 league games at the Camp Nou. «From that season on, the best Messi and the best Barça appeared. And although Atlético was growing ... Well, the statistics are also broken ”, confides Murcia, who led the rojiblanco team in 21 games. The only Barça scorer that afternoon was Henrik

Larsson

, who will be sitting on the bench today, along with Alfred

Schroeder

, who will replace the suspended Ronald

Koeman

.

Through this arid desert in the nest of Barcelona, ​​apart from Simeone,

Javier Aguirre

,

Quique Sánchez Flores

,

Abel Resino

and

Gregorio Manzano

, the last to try his luck before the arrival of the Argentine coach

, also stepped on it

.

«You don't prepare the game thinking about statistics, you just want to win.

Although it is true that sometimes all that noise reaches the locker room ", admits Manzano.

"After each duel there is a different story and in all that time there were also rarefied environments," adds the Andalusian coach, who came to take the Camp Nou with Mallorca.

In his attempt with Atlético, he returned to Madrid with a 5-0 and Messi's hat-trick.

"Play as if history did not exist"

In 2009,

Abel

had tried his luck

. And he did so by giving the alternative to

Koke

, only 17 years old, who played the last 23 minutes. Like Manzano, Guardiola's Barça took him ahead (5-2), with a double from Messi. “You don't have to think about history or negative streaks because they don't get you anywhere. These games have to be approached as if history did not exist ”, maintains the one who is still the rojiblanco goalkeeper with the most games (303).

Oblak

will turn 300 today. “Atlético have to take advantage of the counterattack, because Barça will not change their style of play. They don't know how to do it any other way, "he concludes. With that same recipe, Atlético attacked the Camp Nou for the last time in that distant 2006.

There are still three games to go, but the fate of the League may be marked on the Barça table.

This time, Atlético will have

Luis Suárez

, who has 19 goals but has not scored for a month and a half.

The Uruguayan, who will receive recognition for his six seasons at Barça, after a rocky farewell, scored 11 goals in 18 games against Atlético.

Some lethal, like the 15/16 course.

There have been many stories, all different, in these 15 years of battles in Barcelona.

"There is always a first time".

Who knows if, in the end, the Camp Nou will surrender to Simeone.

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