Diego Simeone's new Atlético...

So there they are, in the final once more. Diego Simeone's Atlético truly inspire admiration. Their football isn't pretty, but he's instilled an intensity in his team that makes them something to behold. Boasting fewer out-and-out household names, they've knocked out Barça and Bayern in successive rounds and now face Real, with rather less separating them from Los Blancos in the betting than in 2014. And let's not forget they took Madrid all the way in Lisbon, right to the 93rd minute. This Atleti side's brand of play maybe doesn't seduce spectators, but it certainly wins matches. And it's bringing joy to a support savouring glorious times.

One game at a time; hard graft, hard graft and yet more hard graft. And superstition, too; though that has ended up getting Simeone's back up. He's employed so many in the build-up that the snowballing press attention it's garnered has left him at the end of his tether. He senses that such coverage detracts from his group's titanic efforts; as if everything were being left in the lap of his hunches: the blue kit, please; this training pitch, that training pitch; the 11th hotel floor... There's not so much in it, really. I'm reminded of the saying 'Pray to God, but keep rowing to shore'. No-one doubts for a second that Simeone keeps rowing. He's indefatigable.

He's the man at the heart of it, but there are others. Of major note for me is the revitalised Fernando Torres; what a season's end he's having. This term, his boss has been given a headache up front, where his two big buys, Jackson Martínez and Luciano Vietto, haven't worked out. Torres looked in decline, sweating blood to finally get his 100th goal. But, like many veterans, he's found form at the campaign's business end, and is finishing it in style. With Antoine Griezmann beside him and Yannick Carrasco and Ángel Correa chipping in, Simeone now has an attack. It's not like Real's, but he has an attack, led by a motivated 'El Niño' in sparkling nick.