For Tottenham Hotspur, it is a return that underlines a sense of wasted possibilities. They are back in Spain for the first time since May’s Europa League final ended their 17-year for a trophy, back at the Metropolitano where, in 2019, they had hoped to win the Champions League for the first time in their history.
And yet, somehow, this may be the least important game of their season. A far greater crisis has enveloped Tottenham. Atletico Madrid could represent an alternative reality for them, a club who have had their own unhappy experience of Champions League finals, who usually finish behind the superclubs in their own country, but who are nevertheless constants in the most prestigious and profitable continental competition.
For Tottenham, the probability is that this is their last Champions League tie for quite some time. Such midweeks may instead be filled by the kind of clubs who will clash elsewhere on Tuesday: Portsmouth and Swansea, Millwall and Derby, Wrexham and Hull; unless, that is, one of them takes their place in the Premier League.
Now, elimination would be far less painful than relegation. Thomas Frank, the manager appointed to improve upon the Europa League winner Ange Postecoglou’s increasingly awful Premier League record, instead prospered in the Champions League, aided by a distinctly friendly fixture list.
Under other circumstances, though, Tottenham could appear favourites to knock out Atletico; after all, they finished 10 places ahead of them in the league stage.
The sight of Spurs in fourth could have looked like the successful culmination of Daniel Levy’s chairmanship; with Tottenham established among the superpowers, punching above their weight, even if their position carried no prize.
And yet it has come to look like an irrelevant achievement: forget looking down on Real Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain in the standings, Spurs could do with seeing at least one of Leeds, Nottingham Forest and West Ham in their rear view mirror come the end of May.
The biggest match of their March will not be either leg against Atletico, nor Sunday’s trip to Liverpool, their conquerors in that 2019 final, but the following week’s meeting with Forest. For the hapless Igor Tudor, it may be a question of whether he gets to see it from the dugout. This could be the free hit for a manager who is winless in his new job, who might note his penultimate result in his last one was a 1-0 defeat in Madrid, albeit to Real, and who may fear history repeats itself.
And so clubs who might have looked comparable instead seem opposites. Tudor is the 10th Tottenham manager of Diego Simeone’s time at Atletico. There will probably be an 11th and a 12th; his old Argentina teammate Mauricio Pochettino, the man who took Tottenham to the Metropolitano in 2019, may be less likely to sign up for a schedule that could include the Kassam Stadium next season.
Atletico have stability, a gleaming stadium, Champions League revenues reinvested in the team. This was how it was supposed to look for Spurs. Since their 2016 Champions League final defeat, Atleti have made the quarter-finals four times. Since the 2019 final, all Spurs have to show for their experiences of the premier continental competition are two demoralising last-16 exits.
And if not all of the €400m Simeone has spent in the last 20 months has brought success, Tottenham at least enabled him to recoup his investment in Conor Gallagher. Spurs have spent more in the same time to regress alarmingly.
For Gallagher, yet to win in the white of Spurs, a European debut for his new club comes against his old. For Cristian Romero, a return after a four-match domestic ban comes against the club who seemed interested in signing him last summer. Romero could look a classic Simeone player but David Hancko, the centre-back Atletico bought instead, has a solitary yellow card this season. There may be a lesson for Romero there.
And if the Argentine and Micky van de Ven underpinned the Europa League triumph last season, they are reunited when, remarkably, each has been sent off in his last appearance, and while wearing the captain’s armband. It means Van de Ven cannot play at Anfield on Sunday. Tudor’s fondness for 3-4-3 means it is far from certain that Romero and Van de Ven will be a duo in the Metropolitano anyway.
But if it represents the place where the Pochettino project could have reached its glorious culmination – and, instead, arguably, brought the start of a decline – this is a fixture with distant resonance. Propelled by Jimmy Greaves’s goals, captained by Danny Blanchflower, Spurs beat Atletico 5-1 in the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1963. They have not met since, whereas when both signed up for the Super League, they intended to meet each other on an annual basis.
In a different context, it would be pertinent to note that the 2027 Champions League final is being played at the Metropolitano. Tottenham’s only victories in 2026 have been in Europe, and their only route back into the Champions League is by winning it.
Even the most optimistic could scarcely harbour such hopes. Seven years on from their lone European Cup final, 10 months after their first European trophy since 1984, one possibility is their next final being in the Championship play-offs.