Can Greizmann Do Better Than Atletico Madrid?

You didn’t really need to watch this game to conclude that Antoine Griezmann is a good player. You could just look at the numbers if you like: 24 goals this season already is pretty solid going for a player who isn’t strictly a traditional centre-forward. You could also mull over the testimonials, that pretty much every club with a decent-sized bank account will be sniffing around him this summer.

But watching this game would provide confirmation to anyone who didn’t know the other information that the France international is one of the world’s class performers. At points, Griezmann conducted things in an almost stately fashion, simultaneously doing all the chasing and running required of anyone in a Simeone side, while also carrying the air of a man who thought it beneath him to play against this rabble.

There was a moment early in the second half when he got the ball on the right and burned past a huffing collection of about four defenders with a visceral burst of pace. Not many things in modern football make the observer gasp, but that piece of skill and athleticism was one of them. It was as if the Leicester players were on skateboards and he was driving a Bugatti Veyron.

Griezmann combines a delicate touch with a relentless pressing style that makes him the ideal modern player, but his movement is always calculated and his energy is rarely wasted. In the same way that a wise old stager like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, these days, Cristiano Ronaldo, has the experience to know when to move and where, Griezmann selects his runs with a wisdom beyond his 26 years.