Fernando Torres is on the verge of going from misfit to maestro as Atletico Madrid stand on the cusp of Champions League glory.

Diego Simeone's team of mavericks take on the might of Real Madrid in an all-Spanish showdown tomorrow night in Milan.

The combative Argentine has moulded a team in his own image, one that is driven forever forward by the irresistible force of his own personality.

And no one has benefited more than Torres, whose career not so long ago looked to be in the toilet.

Despite winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012, the striker reappeared at the Vicente Calderon on loan from AC Milan last summer as damaged goods.

His time in London was not exactly a bed of roses with his short spell at San Siro best described as underwhelming.

Yet he is now almost certainly a more complete player than the one lured from Madrid to Liverpool at the age of 23 for a fee in the region of £20million.

“This final is the most important game of my life, an opportunity to write a page that isn’t written in the history of Atletico,” he said.

“I have the chance to fulfil a childhood dream, which was to win with this club.”

“I knew what I was risking by coming back. A lot of people thought I couldn’t get better [than before], but I was sure of the group I was joining. I knew this group was heading for something big.”

And therein is the appeal of Atletico. The group, the collective, the siege mentality fostered by Simeone, this most obsessive, aggressive, ‘hands-on’ of coaches.

“We look after each other. We will die for each other and we know this is the only way we can compete,” said Torres.

“We know we can do it and we know that we have to do it as a team. This is the word we are listening to this week: team, team, team.

“We think this is the key word. If we are going to win, it should be as a team.”