Atlético's glass jaw: one blow and they crumble, says Gutiérrez

Alejandro Gutiérrez believes that, without Lenormand's mistake, Atlético could have taken something from the game. But he points to a problem that has dogged the side for a couple of seasons: when they take the first hit in big matches, they fall apart mentally.

Alejandro Gutiérrez focuses on both the physical and the emotional side. In Europe, he says, Spanish teams get overrun physically, and it is very hard to keep up that intensity for 90 minutes. Even so, he believes that had Lenormand not made his mistake, Atlético had a chance of getting something out of the game.

The problem he identifies is not new this season: Atleti have a glass jaw. In very tight games, even when they feel capable of going toe to toe with an opponent like Bayern, they collapse mentally as soon as they concede. And that is very hard to recover from. He thinks the same happened at Liverpool, against opponents who were, on paper, superior, and that the team lacks the belief that they are good enough.

For Gutiérrez, Atleti could have competed with more personality and landed a punch or two earlier instead of waiting so long. When things go against them, they are left completely exposed and Bayern dominate entirely. He cites the second goal, which made it 0-2, as an example, explaining it only as the work of a side that had short-circuited: the opposing right-back had all the time in the world inside the box to put it in the top corner.