The biggest miracle in soccer isn't Leicester City.

What the crafty little English club has done this season, capitalizing on the many failures of England's perennial title contenders and brazenly coming within days of snatching the Premier League crown is remarkable, certainly. But, thus far anyway, it's a onetime accomplishment, astonishing though it may be. It may very well prove to be a one-off, an aberration. It probably will.

Atletico Madrid, however, has been at it for three years now.

Two seasons ago, the Mattress Makers became the first Spanish champions in a decade not named Real Madrid or Barcelona. They also reached the Champions League final. This season, they are tied with Barcelona on points for the La Liga lead with three games to go. And, courtesy of Wednesday's 1-0 home win over Bayern Munich in the first leg of their semifinals, thanks to Saul's magnificent goal, they stand within 90 minutes of another miraculous year.

Yes, Atleti is a bigger club than Leicester, and, no, their accomplishment doesn't quite have the same whiff of Cinderella's glass slipper to them. But they aren't any less amazing for it. The absence of broader recognition for these extraordinary feats is a testament to the club's ability to compete as consistently as it has under the management of Bond villain and managerial genius Diego Simeone.

At a club historically wrecked by financial trouble and ravaged by mismanagement, the frightening, black-clad Argentine has forged one of the greatest defensive units ever seen in the game, opposite a revolving door of forwards that have eked out sufficient goals to make it count.

And he has done it with a team that ranked 15th in the world's game in revenues, generating 187 million euros last season. Nothing to sniff at, of course, but it's a third of what domestic rivals Barca and Real bring in, and less than half the earnings of Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool, clubs Atletico have systematically outperformed in the Champions League. Oh, and a third of what Bayern collects. If that isn't quite as spectacular as what Leicester has done, it's that much harder to pull off over the span of several years.

Now Atleti are a game away from a second Champions League final in three years.

Wednesday's win was classic Atletico Madrid, forged from the mold with which Barcelona was defeated in the quarterfinals (also for a second time in three years).

Simeone's ferocious charges pinned Bayern back early on. Then after 11 minutes, Saul wicked and weaved through a forest of Bavarian defenders, scissor-stepped towards David Alaba, created a little room and rolled his finish off the far post and in.

That would do. And so Atletico sat in, safe in the knowledge that it had its goal and could force its opponents to try to break down the defensive banks they poured from reinforced concrete. Even without injured defensive rock Diego Godin, Atleti withstood the waves of attacks.

Bayern dominated most of the first half, yet only really had chances when Jose Gimenez miscued a clearance, which was almost headed in by Arturo Vidal, but corrected on the goal line by Gimenez himself. The Germans wanted a penalty on a ball-to-hand shot in the box on Philipp Lahm's effort.

In the opening act, Bayern had more than 70 percent possession, yet only got off one shot against Atletico's expert defending. Striker Robert Lewandowski had no touches at all in the opposing box.

Bayern made adjustments at the break, though. And some 10 minutes into the second half, David Alaba cracked a long shot off Jan Oblak's crossbar.

That set off a flurry of chances, most notably when a wide-open Javi Martinez headed a corner at Oblak's goal but put it too close to the Slovenian goalkeeper. But Atletico eventually managed to push Bayern, which was still very much dominating possession, higher up the field and mostly keep the Bundesliga power away from the dangerous areas and force it into taking hopeful long shots. And none of those bested Oblak – not even Arturo Vidal's wondrous strike.

Meanwhile, the reborn Fernando Torres almost gave Atletico a second goal to take to Germany next week on Antoine Griezmann's preparatory work on the break. But after cutting inside Alaba, El Nino whipped his outside-booted shot off the far post.

Bayern's late offensive had more bark than bite, and in a raucous Vicente Calderon stadium, dutifully whipped into a frenzy at Simeone's urging, Atletico took an advance on yet another spot in the final.

The job in Munich will be a daunting one. But then Simeone's Atletico Madrid can be relied upon to overachieve.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.