Two academy debutants seal Mestalla win as Simeone rotates ahead of Arsenal second leg

Eleven changes, and still the better side in the first half

Diego Simeone changed all eleven of his starters from Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg. Julián Álvarez sat out with an ankle issue. Around a spine of experienced players, Juan Musso, Nahuel Molina, Robin Le Normand and Clément Lenglet, the rest of the lineup was filled with academy graduates: Javi Boñar, Julio Díaz, Javi Morcillo, Rodrigo Mendoza and Rayane Belaid all walked into Mestalla together.

The shape was listed as 4-5-1 by some outlets and 5-4-1 by others, but in practice Molina pushed high and turned the right side into a recurring exit route. Valencia edged possession at 53%, yet Atlético created the better chances through the first half. Into the Calderón reported that the visitors fired eleven shots before halftime, the most they have managed in a LaLiga away game this season. FotMob's final numbers tell the same story: 20 shots to 12, five on target to none, and an xG of 2.04 to 1.09.

Simeone summed it up afterward.

"I'd planned the match exactly as it went. That link-up play from Molina, with Boñar, with Morcillo, with Rayane, who worked very well in defence."

Rotation plus academy promotion can easily slide into a match that simply runs out the clock. At Mestalla, the side with the most to prove kept the tempo high.

Molina shows another version of himself

Molina was the brightest player on the pitch in red and white. Early on, his backheel sent Mendoza in on a clear chance. Through the rest of the match he kept whipping crosses into the box, and the moment of the night was a rocket from around forty yards out that smacked the post. FotMob handed him a 7.9, near the top of the starters, and Into the Calderón gave him an 8 with a man-of-the-match feel.

Simeone has been saying the same thing about his right back all season.

"As for Nahuel, I'm absolutely certain that his best form comes in transitions, from midfield onwards. He's got an eye for goal, a good shot, and he provides assists… When he's playing more offensively, he can deliver all that for us. From deeper positions it's more difficult."

A defender who has struggled in 1v1s and lost his man too often this season looks like a different player when he operates closer to the opposition box. Mestalla offered the full version of that other Molina.

With Giuliano Simeone going through a rough stretch and Nico González out with a muscle injury, the right side for Tuesday is no longer a copy-paste from the first leg.

For my money, using Molina higher up the pitch in the second leg at Emirates Stadium is a real option. The pairing of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães is hard to break down through the middle, and a right foot that can find the goal from outside the box is one way to attack around that wall rather than through it. Weighing the defensive risk against the attacking upside, Molina looks like a credible tool to skip past Arsenal's centre-back line.

Luque and Cubo, two debut goals in nineteen minutes

In the 63rd minute, Simeone sent Iker Luque and Miguel Llorente "Cubo" on at the same time. The 20-year-old Luque replaced Rayane Belaid; the 18-year-old Cubo came on for Javi Morcillo. Both were making their first-team LaLiga debuts after coming through Atlético Madrileño.

Eleven minutes later the deadlock broke. In the 74th, Obed Vargas received the ball in midfield and worked it out to the left, and Luque slotted past Stole Dimitrievski at the near post. A debut goal eleven minutes after coming on. It was Vargas's first goal contribution in an Atlético shirt as well.

Eight minutes after that it was Cubo's turn. In the 82nd, Antoine Griezmann brought a lofted ball down brilliantly and slid a pass behind the defensive line. Valencia's defenders pulled up to appeal for offside, but Cubo kept playing and finished from inside the box with his right foot. VAR confirmed the goal. The point of the move was Cubo refusing to wait for a whistle that never came. Shortly after, a foul on Musso shut down a Valencia counter, and the rhythm of the game tilted toward the visitors.

Per data analyst MisterChip, this was the first time in 41 years that two debutants scored for Atlético in the same match. Simeone made a point of redirecting the credit afterward.

"These lads are Fernando Torres's doing, not ours. It's a reward for Atlético Madrid."

Behind both players reaching the senior stage was the work of a former striker now coaching the B side, Atlético Madrileño.

One last note on the sequence. Koke and Griezmann came on together in the 73rd. The opener arrived a minute later, and the second goal in the 82nd came directly from a Griezmann assist. Griezmann was directly involved in a goal; Koke steadied the tempo of the closing stages. It was a piece of management that pushed back on the idea that rotation simply means trusting the kids and walking away.

Vargas is already returning more than the fee suggests

A word on Obed Vargas, the 20-year-old Mexico international who arrived in the winter window. He moved from Seattle Sounders on 2 February for a reported fee of around $3.5 million. Compared with Rodrigo Mendoza, who arrived from Elche in the same window for a reported €16 million, this was a contained investment. The double signing raised eyebrows at the time, but Vargas has adapted to European football faster than most expected.

ItC summed up his performance as "unselfish and understated". Like much of the lineup, his job today was to avoid being the one who made the mistake, and inside that brief his assist for Luque was a high-quality piece of play. He resists pressure, keeps the ball, and recycles it with simple passes. In a young team, his composure was genuinely doing the job of a backbone. Given what he reportedly cost, he is already returning more than the fee suggests.

The midfield competition with Pablo Barrios, Johnny Cardoso, Koke, and fellow young arrivals like Mendoza and Morcillo is still ahead. But every time Simeone uses him, the trust seems to grow another notch.

Three points, a clean sheet, and a runway to Emirates

This was Atlético's first LaLiga away clean sheet since the win at Oviedo in February. Post-match, the gap to third-placed Villarreal sat at five points, and the gap to fifth-placed Real Betis, who have a game in hand, widened to thirteen. In the race for next season's Champions League slots, this was a meaningful three points.

Above all, Simeone changed his entire starting XI from Wednesday and held Koke and Griezmann's minutes to seventeen at the end. Most of the players who had started the first leg were given a complete rest, which matters with Emirates next on the schedule. Asked after the match whether he had anything to say to people who have criticized his rotations, Simeone replied with one word.

"Nothing."

Wednesday ended 1-1, with Viktor Gyökeres and Julián Álvarez trading penalties. With away goals long gone from this competition, what Atlético take into Emirates is not a scoreboard advantage but a fitness advantage. Whether they had won or lost today, the conditioning would have been banked. Simeone chose to manage the match in a way that allowed him to say so.

To my mind, the value of resting the rest of the first-leg starters while limiting Koke and Griezmann to a short cameo will only grow over the three days before Tuesday. Against Arsenal, heavy legs are the kind of problem that overrides tactics.

The answer is waiting on Tuesday at Emirates.

Ratings

Ratings for the starting eleven.

Ratings for the substitutes.

※ItC ratings via Into the Calderón; FotMob ratings via FotMob.