Although Diego Simeone's philosophy of going game by game has changed the history of Atletico Madrid, it has never been more true than their clash on Wednesday with Lokomotiv Moscow at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.
The club need to secure safe passage into the last 16 before they get back to LaLiga Santander, where they sit in seventh position in the league and need to secure a ticket back to European football for next season.
It is the first time in 40 matchdays, since Matchday 4 of last season, that Atletico have found themselves outside of the European places, then even lower in ninth.
In each of the last 10 occasions when it has been the case, it has been early on in the season ever since Simeone took over in January 2012 with the team in tenth.
In two cases, in 2013/14 and 2015/16, Atletico never dropped out of the European spots at any point of the season.
Never before has Simeone been in seventh after 16 games played, although they were sixth in 2016/17 with just two points more than the current total of 26.
It was commonplace before El Cholo arrived, with Gregorio Manzano's side in tenth on 19 points when Simeone arrived.
Simeone has kept his team in the top six on 287 matchdays from the 304 that he has overseen, an incredible 94.5 percent.
Other than that first season where he achieved Europa League qualification, it has been seven consecutive years of Champions League football and top three finishes for Simeone.
Despite now being outside of the European places, level on points with Athletic Club in sixth, they are still only one point away from the Champions League spots, but for now all eyes are on Lokomotiv.