This season has been one long hangover for Atletico Madrid, but you can understand why.

There was a point immediately after the 2016 Champions League final when it seemed like Diego Simeone was overcome. You might even dare to say he a beaten man. He had a couple of emblematic soundbites: “It’s time for me to think about what I’ve learned losing two finals: a time for reflection… it’s also time to cure our wounds at home. Losing two finals is a failure.”

Not defiant words; rather, a window into a damaged psyche. His manner, his thoughts, the dark cloud over his head: losing their second consecutive Champions League final to Real Madrid, each time in absolute extremis, had knocked the stuffing out of him.

This week, Simeone confessed what we all knew at the time. “Right then, in the moments after losing on penalties, I didn’t know whether I’d have the strength to lead this squad again.”

His response to that defeat was playing “hard to get,” enjoying the European summer in Argentina where his club’s executives spent several days not only persuading him to stay on rather than quit, but accepting that he wanted to decrease the number of years on his contract.

The combination of a second hugely bitter pill to swallow in the Champions League followed by deep uncertainty over the future of their talismanic manager seemed to heavily impact some key Atletico players. Gabi began to look more like 37 than 33, Juanfran lost his place in the team for a month, injuries (to Tiago, Augusto Fernandez, Diego Godin and Jan Oblak) proliferated. Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco took eight games to get off the mark in La Liga, the team missed five consecutive penalties and Los Rojiblancos‘ superstar, Antoine Griezmann, went three whole months without a league goal.

Things properly hit the buffers in November and December when they lost four and drew one of seven Liga matches, failing to score in five of them. Add the defeat to Bayern in Munich that closed their Champions League group games and it was the most miserable build-up to Christmas since the month when Simeone took the team by the scruff of the neck in 2011.

That awful sequence of matches before the new year began with an absolutely barnstorming defeat at Sevilla in which Jorge Sampaoli’s team, courtesy of a breakaway goal from Steven N’Zonzi, emphasised Atleti’s emerging soft centre. It was an epic clash, one to embellish the reputation of the entire Spanish league. But at the weekend, in the return fixture, Simeone’s team sealed the idea that the hangover is now well and truly cured. Atleti also hinted that they fancy sampling some bubbly again between now and the beginning of June in Cardiff.

Oblak is back, and made a triple save within the space of about six seconds against Bayer Leverkusen last week that caused Griezmann to call his keeper “the best in the world.” (Hugo Lloris, please take note.) Godin is not only back as well, but he headed home the vital goal that gave Los Rojiblancos the breakthrough against Sampaoli’s Sevilla. Simeone, now the proud father of a little baby girl whose nappies he happily changes (“whether they smell good or bad”) is talking bullishly again.

His Yin and Yang are in harmony once more.

As for Griezmann, not only does he continue to emphasise that he’s got absolutely no intention of leaving Atleti this summer, but he’s scored five goals in his last four Liga appearances and 22 in all competitions this season. It’s also worth noting that the France international’s latest goal, in Sunday’s 3-1 demolition of Sevilla, helping Atleti cut the gap from seemingly unbridgeable about a month ago to just two points, was one of which Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo would be burstingly proud.

It was a thundering free kick from an absolutely unfeasible distance. Only the most confident, most ambitious, most in-form player would even have thought of it: never mind actually find the net from 30 metres.

After the match, Simeone summed up what’s changed “I’ve got one challenge in front of me that is more emotional every time [winning the Champions League]. To lose two finals consecutively to the same club in that manner I guess would have finished many teams. But here’s mine, once again fighting, competing and doing what we have to do.

“Every time we play that competition and hear the anthem the music brings pain. That’s our motivation.”

And so, before Clemente Vilaverde (Atleti’s corporate representative) left for Switzerland last week to represent the beaten 2016 finalists at the Champions League draw, Simeone, a superstitious guy, simply said to him “bring us back a team that we can beat.”

Note that he didn’t specifically say “Leicester” but nevertheless, with the Copa del Rey already gone, la Liga un-winnable and most of Atleti’s tough fixtures already played, there’s suddenly a sense of momentum about their form just as the Champions League has become their only shot at a trophy. In fact, given how they’re playing right now, the UEFA draw went absolutely beautifully for Atleti. No team coached by Simeone is going to underestimate Leicester.

About himself, the Argentinean admits: “I was mistrustful and suspicious as a kid and I’m still that way now.” But if there’s a side left in Europe particularly equipped to go toe-to-toe with Leicester, which relishes a scrap and loves aerial contests but can also really play, it’s Atleti.

England’s champions can probably look at the draw and equally feel relieved that they don’t have to suffer a long night at the Bernabeu, Allianz Arena or Camp Nou. Not places for novices.

But if Simeone’s troops really are “on the march again.” they can view things this way. They have the beating of Leicester, if they play to form, and should they advance, they know that the ties pitting Juve against Barça and Madrid against Bayern mean that two serious, powerful and trophy-laden rivals will be eliminated.

“We are improving, growing but there are better teams. That means that you have to know very clearly what to do against them,” Simeone told El Transistor on Monday night. And that doesn’t just apply to any of their potential European rivals, either. For Atleti, the only tough thing about the Champions League draw is that it places them at home to Leicester just a handful of days after the Madrid derbi at the Santiago Bernabeu.

It’s not ideal, particularly after Gabi declared that nobody would be advancing themselves (he meant Griezmann) if they moved from Atleti to Madrid in the next transfer market. That will have been noted by Los Blancos.

Gabi also stated this week that “Our objective has changed. Before, we were after securing fourth place. Now we want third,” meaning Sevilla are in their sights. Also, that Atleti will need to beat Madrid in order to keep the heat on Sampaoli’s faltering team. And more intense, draining preparation ahead of yet another quarterfinal in Europe.

Realistically, the only thing Atleti need to fear is fear itself.

In each of their last two Champions League finals, they’ve shown the technique, skill, attitude and quality to win them. In 2014, it took something utterly exceptional, Sergio Ramos’ added-time header, to prevent them winning. Last year, it was the lottery of penalties. Neither loss branded them as “losers” or “bottlers,” either.

What the two matches actually showed is that Atleti simply need the rub of the green: everything else, in football terms, is in place. But what did echo out from the San Siro last May was that perhaps the superstitious Simeone felt he was fated not to win, leading to the possibility that his players might begin to find the damage the competition had done to him contagious. It’s the sort of thing that happens in sport. “If the boss doesn’t truly believe, how can we…?”

Simeone acknowledged as much when talking about the Calderon vibe to which Atleti must say goodbye in the summer before moving to their newly built Wanda-Metropolitan stadium.

Assessing the power of a stadium’s atmosphere, he said: “There’s an energy. Fear caused by the atmosphere exists in football. Anxiety can grow, doubts can transmit. It’s the same way, just in reverse, that a truly great atmosphere can inspire people.” If it’s true of a stadium, then it’s most certainly true of the day-to-day working atmosphere with a coach or manager.

If he doesn’t truly, absolutely believe that conquering Europe is achievable, for whatever reason, that will unerringly transmit itself, consciously or subconsciously, to his staff who have to work for him day in day out.

That’s something I think Simeone needs to incorporate into his own development and to address if he and his red-and-white “fightback boys” are to go all the way in Europe this season. He’s a great believer in luck, both in life and in sport. But he also believes that “you have to create the conditions with preparation and positive energy for luck to favour you.”

Aside from actually defeating England’s champions, by no means a “gimme,” Simeone’s major task may now be convincing first himself and then his hugely characterful squad that not only can they win the Champions League, but that this is their year.

Graham Hunter covers Spain for ESPN FC and Sky Sports. Author of “Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World.” Twitter: @BumperGraham.