Can a football club really be cursed?
It is a question many long-suffering fans of certain teams have asked themselves. And while Atletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, who meet in the Champions League round of 16, have both won multiple trophies over their history, they have also experienced their fair share of bad fortune.
In Atletico’s case, it led to them being known as ‘el pupas’ — the jinxed one. Diego Simeone’s team have been knocked out of the Champions League by city rivals Real Madrid five times from the 2014 final onwards, giving that ‘jinx’ fresh meaning.
For Tottenham, the word ‘Spursy’ has come to symbolise their recent struggles. The north London club won the Europa League last season — their first title in 17 years — but are now one point outside the Premier League relegation zone in 16th. The threat of a first top-flight demotion since 1977 is very real.
Do Atletico have the worst luck? Have Spurs been struck by the most misfortune? Should both fanbases just look at Sheffield Wednesday and get over themselves? La Liga writer Dermot Corrigan and Spurs fan Dan Kilpatrick argue their case…
Where does the idea of the club being ‘cursed’ come from?
Corrigan: The idea of Atletico being jinxed in this competition goes back to their 1974 European Cup final against Bayern Munich, when they were leading 1-0 in extra time thanks to a goal from club legend Luis Aragones.
In the 120th minute, Bayern defender Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck sent a 35-yard speculative shot past an apparently distracted Atleti goalkeeper Miguel Reina to force a replay (penalty shootouts had yet to be introduced). Four days later, Bayern won the replay 4-0.
Thus began the ‘pupas’ curse, a millstone Atletico seemingly cannot shake — particularly against their richer, record 15-time Champions League/European Cup-winning neighbours.
In the 2014 final, Atletico were seconds away from winning the trophy until Sergio Ramos headed home a 93rd-minute equaliser for Real Madrid, who ran out easy 4-1 winners in extra time.
Two years later, at the same stage of the competition, Antoine Griezmann missed from the spot in normal time and former Real academy product turned Atleti right-back Juanfran missed the decisive penalty as Simeone’s team lost the shootout 5-3.
The jinx appeared to return last season in the round of 16, a tie that went to penalties in the second leg at Atletico’s Metropolitano stadium. Atleti forward Julian Alvarez saw his spot kick disallowed after the officials spotted an — arguably negligible — double touch. Former Real player Marcos Llorente also missed his kick and Atleti lost the shootout 4-3.
After an official club complaint to UEFA over the Alvarez decision, the game’s lawmakers, IFAB, changed the rules so that if a taker accidentally makes contact with the ball with both feet and the kick is successful, it must now be retaken instead of counting as a miss. You can imagine how that went down with Atletico fans.
Kilpatrick: From years of Tottenham snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
A whole new term has entered the modern footballing lexicon — ‘Spursy’ — to mean their uncanny ability to shoot themselves in the foot or underachieve. There is also a particularly strong fatalism within the fanbase, born of an overwhelming feeling that the world is against them.
Consider, for example, ‘Lasagnagate’ in 2006 — when supposed food poisoning, which turned out to be norovirus, spoiled their Champions League hopes on the final day of the 2005-06 season — or when Spurs finished fourth in 2011-12 but still missed out on Europe’s top competition because London rivals Chelsea won the competition. Or when UEFA changed the handball law after Moussa Sissoko had been penalised in the 2019 Champions League final defeat to Liverpool at Atletico’s Metropolitano stadium. The list goes on.
Is there anything that shows they aren’t ‘cursed’?
Corrigan: During Diego Simeone’s 15 years as coach, Atletico have won every other trophy they have played for apart from the Champions League — La Liga (twice, in 2014 and 2021), the Europa League (twice, in 2012 and 2018), the Copa del Rey, the Supercopa de Espana, and the UEFA Super Cup.
They are also through to this season’s Copa del Rey final after eliminating Barcelona in a rollercoaster semi-final in which they were 4-0 up by half-time in the first leg at the Metropolitano, but still ended up hanging on in the final stages of a 3-0 second-leg loss at the Camp Nou.
Atletico will be happy not to be facing Real Madrid in the decider, but instead Real Sociedad in Seville on April 18.
Kilpatrick: Even Spurs’ historic Europa League triumph last season is beginning to feel more like a curse than a blessing.
In desperately pursuing a European trophy, Spurs have seemingly forgotten how to win domestically, and could still suffer the ultimate ignominy of being relegated from the Premier League this term.
That said, success and failure are relative: Spurs are still one of the Premier League’s ever-presents, playing in a £1billion, state-of-the-art stadium, and there are countless clubs up and down the country who would gladly swap places with them.
What other similarities or differences are there between these sides?
Corrigan: Over the years, Atletico have had to deal with a lack of respect from their counterparts in the Madrid Derby. Many fans (and executives) at the Metropolitano also feel as if they suffer from local-media bias towards Real Madrid.
While the ‘derbi’ is always the biggest fixture for Atletico, many at Madrid have viewed Barcelona as their main rivals through recent decades — just as (maybe) Arsenal fans have often looked past Tottenham to worry more about the threat posed by Manchester United, Chelsea or Manchester City in the Premier League.
Kilpatrick: The most obvious similarity is their struggles to emerge from the shadow of a more successful city rival.
The Spurs-Arsenal rivalry is historically on more of an even footing than Real-Atleti, but Spurs have been far less successful than their neighbours in the modern era — and it hurts. There are plenty of differences, but the stability Atleti have fostered in sticking with Simeone stands in stark contrast to Spurs’ habit of lurching between managers, styles and approaches.
What are their chances of success in the Champions League looking like this season?
Corrigan: Atletico have been on a rollercoaster this season. They took just two points from their first three La Liga games, but then hammered Real Madrid 5-2 in September’s La Liga derbi.
Over the past month, their focus has narrowed to the cup competitions after back-to-back defeats to Real Betis and Rayo Vallecano (a 3-0 loss) ended any faint hopes of a title challenge.
Their Champions League campaign has also had its ups and downs, with a loss to Bodo/Glimt in the final league-phase game meaning they had to navigate a play-off against Club Brugge. Simeone’s team rode their luck at times in both games, but a superb second-leg hat-trick by striker Alexander Sorloth saw them through 7-4 on aggregate.
Atletico have shown, by hammering both Real Madrid and Barcelona in domestic competition this season, that they are capable of beating top opposition in one-off games, and the draw has been quite friendly to them. So maybe, just maybe, this is the year they finally put the ‘pupas’ moniker behind them.
Kilpatrick: Bleak. There is a compelling case that Spurs should effectively throw the Champions League, so perilous is their situation in the Premier League. They are still without a domestic win in 2026 and this season bears every possible hallmark of a shock relegation.
So, whose club is the most ‘cursed’?
Corrigan: From here in Spain, Atletico appear the most cursed — especially in the Champions League, where they have experienced some terrible fortune through cruel defeats to their much richer and more powerful neighbours.
You do not have to buy into any conspiracy theories — although some Atletico fans do — to believe that somebody, somewhere just does not want them to finally win that long-sought-after first European Cup.
Kilpatrick: Sorry, Dermot, but frankly, it is not even close.
Atleti may have fallen short on a number of occasions, but they can point to two La Liga titles in the past 12 years while competing against Real and Barcelona. They have also been consistently competitive in the Champions League over the same period. Spurs fans would kill to be ‘cursed’ in the same way!