In the buildup to Saturday's Madrid derby, Atletico full-back Juanfran Torres appeared before the media at the club's Cerro de Espina training ground. There, the first thing he was asked was whether the greatest risk for Atletico might turn out to be overconfidence. Was there too much euphoria? Juanfran said no, of course, but the fact that the question was even posed was eloquent in itself. Not so long ago, even asking that question would have been unthinkable. Not so long ago, the response would have surely been: Overconfidence? At Atletico? Against Real Madrid? Are you having a laugh?!
This time it's different. This time it was a reasonable question. Not a brilliant one, for sure. Not one that was ever likely to elicit any other answer, and not one that demonstrated a deep understanding of Atletico's mindset under Diego Simeone. One of the reasons they have been so successful is that they see the threat in every team, that not even the smallest sides are underestimated. Simeone's team is not presumptuous and certainly does not suffer a superiority complex. But nor do they suffer that crippling inferiority complex against Real any more. And that is why it was a reasonable question.
"Euphoria" was the word used, but it wasn't the right word. That would be going too far, but there is a confidence about the Vicente Calderon that contrasts with the concerns at the Santiago Bernabeu. Atletico have not played brilliantly, but they are unbeaten. Real's last game was a 4-2 hammering at Anoeta against Real Sociedad. There are doubts about the system, which players will occupy it and whether it will work. Last season, Carlo Ancelotti encountered a model that worked, a 4-3-3 that functioned perfectly. But two of Real's midfield three have departed.
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Atletico and Real last met in the Spanish Super Cup. According to Hugo Cerezo in Marca, after the end of the first leg, Simeone cornered Angel Di Maria. "You son of a bitch," he began. "You ruined the game for us. We had everything under control until you came on. It's a good job you only played for 10 minutes." In the second leg, he did not play any minutes at all, and three days later he had gone. Atletico won the second leg, and Simeone described Di Maria as his opponents' "best player."
But that is not the only reason that things have changed. Over the past two years, everything has shifted in a derby that appeared in danger of dying a slow death. When Atletico won the Copa del Rey against Real at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2013, it was the first time they had beaten their opponents since 1999, their first victory in 25 matches. The following season, they took the league title off Madrid. And now they have taken the Spanish Super Cup from them.
In between, they lost the Champions League final of course, and in the last minute. Atletico have now had two European Cups within their grasp, 40 years apart. A total of three minutes cost them both. It was after the first defeat that the name El Pupas, "the jinxed one," was first used by Vicente Calderon. After the second defeat, El Pupas might have returned. The Super Cup victory at the start of this season was important for precisely that reason: Atletico proved that they had not been sunk by the experience of Lisbon. "It was a shattered dream," Atletico captain Gabi said. But it did not shatter the team.
The derby has been revived and Spanish football is better for it. The European Cup finalists, the first time two teams from the same city have ever met in the final, will meet at the Bernabeu. The best two teams on the continent, league champions versus cup winners.
Last season Atletico beat Madrid in the league (drawing the other game 2-2) and took the title. They lost in the Champions League final, having been seconds away from glory. Real Madrid won that and they prevailed when the teams met in the Copa del Rey semifinal, winning both games. A draw and a victory saw Atletico take the Spanish Super Cup. In 2014, the balance is in fact favourable to Real Madrid, three wins to two. They have a bigger budget and better players. One headline insisted this morning: "Iker Casillas: fifteen years, just one defeat."
But that defeat was the last game. And that matters; it reinforced that the derby is not the stroll it once was, that "normal" service was not resumed by the Champions League final, a game that Gabi admits "we'll never, ever forget." This will be the eighth time they have met in a year, and each time it has been fiercely competitive. It will continue to be. In transforming Atletico, Simeone has revived a fixture that was fading. It is once again an occasion, not a foregone conclusion; a rivalry revived and played out on the biggest stage of all in Lisbon.
"Madrid look at us with different eyes now," Juanfran said. "These are wonderful games to play in. This was unthinkable a few years ago."