Atletico Madrid 4 AC Milan 1
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Milan are 10th in Serie A and crap.
And Atletico Madrid are my kind of football team.
Organised, tenacious and masculine.
And Diego Costa, the late-developing striker of the season, is my kind of centre forward.
He’s a tall, lanky, mean, deceptive 25-year old goal-poacher who is also a target man.
He’s economical, a foxy master of disguise, a lethal technician who’s faster than he looks.He is also very consistent.
Week after week, the ultra-competitive Diego Costa delivers.
A couple of weeks ago, in La Liga’s biggest game of the season, an incredibly intense derby with Real Madrid, I was surprised to see him shoot wide when Atletico were winning 2-1, and amazed when he miscued an easy header just after that.
They drew that game 2-2.
Having scored the only goal in the first leg in the San Siro, Diego Costa volleyed the opening goal in last night’s demolition of Seedorf’s Meelan, and then buried the fourth with a perfectly placed low shot across the keeper that went in off the post.
His shooting and heading are uncannily accurate.
He’s Brazilian-born but played for Spain last week.
And Vicente Del Bosque knows he needs a centre forward to have any chance of retaining the World Cup. Torres and David Villa are past their prime.
Unfortunately, Diego Costa didn’t impress on his debut against Italy last week, when he was marked out of the game by Parma defender Gabriel Paletta.
Pedro scored the only goal of the game.
Maybe Atletico’s main man will have better nights for Spain. He’s one of the strikers the manager is thinking about.
Del Bosque, who has coached Spain since 2008, looks older than his 63 years.
He seems to have been around forever.
His bald head and grey moustache make him look mournful, like an old walrus. He says, “I know it doesn’t look as if I’m enjoying it, but I am.”