Atletico Madrid 7-1 Granada (2016)

Atletico Madrid 7-1 Granada

Estadio Vicente Calderon

Saturday 15th October 2016

Back in the days before Atletico decided that playing home games at the Wanda Metropolitano was the way forward, their home ground was the brilliant 'Estadio Vicente Calderon' in downtown Madrid.

Located on the banks of the River Manzanares right in the heart of the city, the stadium and the neighbourhood surrounding it oozed charm, though it was in something of a dilapidated state having barely seen any improvements since it was constructed in the 1960s. 

Panoramic view from underneath the overhang (sadly from my crap old phone).

Like Villa Park in England, where part of the road runs underneath the Trinity Road stand, the Vicente Calderon offered pretty much the same with the busy M30 Motorway running underneath the Main Stand which was, incidentally, the only side with a roof - testament to just how few improvements there'd been over the previous half a century.

Despite the rest of the ground being open to the elements, there was a close-to-capacity, fervent crowd for this game who got to witness what turned out to be Atletico's biggest victory of the 2016/17 season in all competitions.

At the time, they were flying high and very much 'up there' with perennial giants Barcelona and Real Madrid competing for trophies on all fronts. Under Diego Simeone's leadership and with Antoine Griezmann as their star man, they'd only missed out on clinching their first ever UEFA Champions League title a few months earlier - losing on penalties to their city rivals in the 2016 Final.

I'd flew into Madrid following an early-morning flight from Manchester Airport, kipping down in the airport the previous night where, by chance, a drunken Ricky Hatton caused a racket just past midnight in Terminal 3 (near the SPAR) having arrived back in the country from wherever.

The lack of decent 'shut eye' almost proved costly as, once I'd got to my accommodation in Madrid, I fell asleep and woke up around an hour-and-a-half before kick-off which resulted in a mad dash to get dressed and head to 'Piramides' which was the nearest metro station to the Vicente Calderon.

From there, it was a straightforward 10-minute walk from the busy and bustling neighbourhoods adjacent to the stadium with street vendors aplenty, music blaring loudly from everywhere and hundreds and hundreds of folk wearing their red and white Atletico Madrid colours with pride.

Once inside, I was located close to the back row near an overhang section which meant, had it rained, then I might have potentially avoided being drenched. Thankfully, as to be expected in Spain, it didn't rain and paved the way for a pleasant enough experience.

Atletico's opponents for this contest were Granada - no, not a team representing the TV company from Greater Manchester, but a yo-yo club from Andalusia who've spent much of their existence flitting between Spanish football's divisions. Stuck in the fourth tier just 10 years earlier, they'd worked their way up to La Liga by 2011-12 but poor form in the weeks going into this meeting with Atletico meant they were cut adrift at the bottom of the table with their top flight future already looking precarious.

Later in this season, they infamously turned to Tony Adams in their efforts to beat the drop. It didn't work; they were relegated weeks before the season finale and his days in Spain are best remembered for a viral remix video of his dance moves during a training session!

Whilst it's easy to batter 'Donkey' for his 0% win ratio, it was a near impossible task to keep them up, and the way they were mercilessly ripped to shreds in this game highlighted how bad they were!

Though Granada did actually have the lead for around a quarter-of-an-hour thanks to a dipping half-volley by Isaac Cuenca, from the moment Yannick Carrasco fired home an equaliser on 34 minutes, it seemed that there was only ever going to be one outcome.

Carrasco bagged a crucial second goal on the stroke of half-time to ensure Atletico were 2-1 up at the break and thereafter, it was one-way traffic. The Belgian international completed his hat-trick on the hour mark and more flaws in Granada's backline were exposed when Nicolas Gaitan then made it 4-1 only a couple of minutes later.

As the sunset began to go down on another day in Madrid, it wasn't quite 'ole' football at this point but an already joyful crowd were on their feet in celebration three more times as the floodgates well and truly opened during the closing stages with Gaitan, Angel Correa and Tiago Mendes all grabbing a goal apiece to emphatically boost the scoreline to 7-1.

The win kept 'Atleti' top of the La Liga table but it was a position they relinquished in the next match-week - usurped once again by bitter rivals Real Madrid who went on to win the title. Their Champions League campaign (which included a Quarter-Final win over Leicester City) also ended in all too familiar fashion as they were beaten, this time at the Semi-Final stage, by guess who? Real Madrid!

Estadio Vicente Calderon has now fallen victim to bulldozers and is expected to be replaced by apartment blocks and a public park over the next decade or so and home games nowadays are played at the plush, purpose-built, ultra-modern Estadio Wanda Metropolitano which is very close to Madrid Barajas Airport.

However, there's no doubt the spiritual 'home' for thousands of Atletico supporters will always be this brilliant, somewhat ramshackle old stadium which was right in the heart of the city.