season, managing to remain undefeated in all six matches. Simeone utilized a 4–4–1–1 formation, with Gabi and Tiago as the defensive midfielders, Koke and Arda Turan acting more like inside-midfielders than traditional wingers, Raul García or David Villa often dropping deep to join the midfield and Diego Costa as the lone striker up-front. In this formation, Simeone denied Barcelona their vital space in the midfield, rendering tiki-taka tactics useless against Atlético. Atlético also relied on their height advantage over the Barça players, with centre-backs Diego Godín and Miranda intercepting all Barcelona long-balls and often going forward when Atlético took a corner kick or free-kick. It is no coincidence that Godín scored Atlético's goal in the last league match against Barcelona, a header from a corner-kick, to give Simeone's team the league title. Atlético also managed to eliminate Barcelona from the Champions League relying on these tactics. Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid relied on positioning to force Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich to defeat in the first semi-final leg of the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League at the Santiago Bernabéu. Bayern, practicing a form of tiki-taka, pressed high in attack but was vulnerable in defence. Real Madrid's players strictly kept their positions when defending, and managed to score on a counter-attack, winning the first game 1–0. In the second leg in Munich, Bayern's defences were even more vulnerable, and Real Madrid managed a resounding 4–0 victory, their first ever away victory against Bayern, eliminating the Champions League holders. 2014 FIFA World Cup In the 2014 World Cup, Dutch manager Louis van Gaal deployed a 5–3–2 formation against Spain in the first match of the group stage. This formation had Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben as strikers, a three-man midfield assisted by wing-backs Daryl Janmaat and Daley Blind and a three-man defence. Spain managed to open the score from a controversial penalty won by Diego Costa and converted by Xabi Alonso, but the swift counter-attacks of the Netherlands proved highly effective in the rest of the match, resulting in a 5–1 victory for the Dutch, topped off by Robin Van Persie's "flying dutchman" masterpiece, the worst defeat for Spain in 64 years. It is noteworthy that Van Gaal was the manager of Barcelona in the 2002–03 season, the man mainly responsible for bringing up Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, who went on to become basic elements of Barcelona and Spain's tiki-taka style. In the second