You are not obligated to more. The ready-made phrase that rides between the title and the first phase of this chronicle perfectly closes the Champions League that Atlético has signed, with an abrupt end in London. Because The rojiblanco did not seem like one of the four best teams on the continent, an unbalanced squad, an erratic path to a certain extent, but an illuminated player in a black suit once again insisted on defying any logic. to which the playoffs arrived. And three rivals fell there, one better, one worse, another half-pensioner, until Arteta’s Arsenal appeared and is now heading towards Budapest. That trip that was legal to dream about…
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Maybe he was demanding the impossible, but the guy had convinced everyone and everyone that it wasn’t. AND, Against this rival with a huge budget and up to seven forwards, who, appearing with Saka, Gyökeres and Trossard in the eleven, allows themselves to leave Madueke, Havertz, Gabriel Jesús and Martinelli on the bench, the red and white team was 45 minutes away from a true final lady. To take into account the context, Atlético has three points. Two of them are very good, yes… but three. It would end up being noticed.
The devil is in the details. The red and white team had managed the first half with some comfort, but Gyökeres finally found the back of the defense when the clock was about to demand an armistice. From there, as usually happens in these cases, everything that could go wrong went worse.: Oblak staying halfway out; Pubill heading towards Trossard’s domain a service, that of the Swede, which was heading towards Giuliano; Ruggeri broke Saka’s offside when the Belgian took the shot that would hit the one with the mitts… The Englishman had no choice but to score after 44 minutes in which his team had not shot on goal.
Because Atlético apparently stood up and even launched two counterattacks as a warning, which Julián and Giuliano failed to finish off. Arsenal once again displayed their tactical face, the one that prioritizes safety over risk, so chewing their plays on the trot hardly did any damage. The stadium did not roar, in fact, until an action by Gyökeres with Le Normand forced the first corner kick, received with a bugle call.. The curious thing about the case is that this time Arteta’s troops decided on the strategy, that’s how it was there, that’s how it would be in the second and third, instead of trying the old luck of the center and shot, defended in that way throughout the course by Atlético.
Simeone had introduced only one change compared to the first leg, that of Le Normand for Cardoso, although with a domino effect for the positions of Pubill and Llorente. One of the drawbacks that the semifinal leaves in that sense is a certain inability to score from both wings, with Giuliano and Lookman almost always neutralized.. The tree that had moved was Arteta’s: up to five new additions to the Metropolitan. The most striking thing there was the substitution of Zubimendi, pulling Lewis-Skelly so that he floated through the midfield…
The local team gained meters almost by inertia, with El Cholo shouting to advance the line. The commitment was impeccable, things as they are, you had to see Grizi celebrating what had been a defensive action against the Gunner striker as a goal. In reality, that first act was diluted without clear opportunities, some shots by Gabriel from afar, some arrival at the baseline, until so much work went to waste in a flash. A play without sufficient intensity, just one, put the semi-final in doubt. Because nothing else, but it costs this Arsenal football and it helps to score a goal. And it had to be done, there was no other option.
And Giuliano had it right away, but Gabriel ate the toast little by little when it seemed like a heads-up. That decisive act was born strange, because for minutes it seemed to break, and in fact Antoine found another one, cleared by Raya, just before the referee did one of those things they do in Europe, finding a light touch from Pubill to whistle a foul with which to take the longuis before the subsequent flagrant penalty. de Calafiori to Griezmann.
Simeone suddenly made a triple change, Molina, Cardoso and Sorloth, to which Arteta immediately responded with a triple change, Hincapié, Odegaard and Madueke. That game of mirrors became unbalanced shortly after, but it did so in the worst way in a red and white key. Julián’s ankle said enough just at the same time as Griezmann’s physique, so Atlético had to exhaust substitutions with the world left to play for and with an increasingly denatured appearance. A notable Gyökeres, in all this, was about to sign the second.
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Indeed, the rest was a will and a miss, with Baena and Almada on their line of the course, with Zubimendi on the grass just in case, with the game stopped every now and then and the team delighted that it was so… and with Sorloth regrettably wasting the last visitor, unable to even hit the ball. The Champions League was going down the drain for an Atlético team that was in any case moving, and until the final whistle was within reach of the knockout stage. But it was not. It was that far as it had come. The pain weighs now, pride never stops weighing…
