Late but in time not to miss the upcoming Champions League, Atlético continues to grow in game and result. Solvent and brilliant at times, he got rid of the Valencia headdress that Baraja is trying to rehabilitate. Griezmann, who refines and finishes the game, and Carrasco, who was popular as a left-back head, were in line for their fifth win in the last six games. Lemar, with a pass from Morata, attested to the state of well-being that the team is going through, filling in Simeone’s thoughts that it is difficult to digest those discarded from the start, that it is the quality and not the quantity of the minutes that matters arrives
The clash also featured two teams and two clubs eyeing each other as alternatives to the Madrid-Barcelona duopoly. And not everything is the apparent difference of reaching the manna of participation in the Champions League year after year, as is the case with Atlético to the club’s relief and the pride of Cholismo, which again sets the Argentine on fire.
Little is left of the Valencia that called it competitive in the championship. Two of his symbols are now on the bench. Baraja and Marchena, this second, are the last hope of Valencianism as representatives of the only possible solution. Arrive with the sheer game and feelings where management isn’t enough and doesn’t satisfy a fan who just wants the property to change hands. Baraja tries to get the team out of the hole with a handful of projects from good players like Guillamón, Correa, Musah, Nico, Hugo Duro or Justin Kluivert, all boiling under the pressure of relegation fire. Insufficient to disarm this seething Atlético. The team kept the momentum after the World Cup that took them to third place and is no longer under pressure to fight for the titles but to claim a place in the next Champions League. Simeone seems to have given later than he would have liked with a solid key. He has found a backbone to complement his two most disparate values, Oblak and Griezmann. The improvements of Hermoso, Molina, Llorente and De Paul, the handover of command to Koke and the Griezmann-Depay couple. The Dutchman frequently taught the argument for which he supplanted Morata. The game with his back, which he decorated with several first-class ball contacts.
This Atlético, more defined and stable, without the tensions generated by the João Félix debate, is asymmetrical. Nothing new for Simeone, who repeats a formula from his early years with a different band. At that time, the right wing was exclusively for Juanfran and he heavily loaded the game down the left with Filipe, Koke and Arda. When the rival switched to that side, Tiago or Gabi turned the game on Juanfran’s empty seat. Now the team is beaten with the triangle Molina, De Paul and Llorente on the right flank and the direction changes for Carrasco. Sometimes it is missing that the Belgian does not give more continuity and emphasis to his controls in the race. But he prides himself on extremes and keeps trying, despite criticism that he might have a foot left. Last night he felt very comfortable in the me versus the world he has to interpret. And Atlético continued to turn on the mortar that Griezmann sharpened from the free spaces he was looking for. An electric and precise foot-to-foot combination between Llorente, De Paul, Depay and Hermoso delighted the staff, who were delighted with Griezmann’s goal. A straight and vertical sequence that beats the three lines of Valencia. Savic-Llorente and the final run and touch of the French attacker.
Fired on by the goal, Atlético galloped together with Depay, whose left shoe was dislodged by a stomp from Foulquier. The referee didn’t signal a foul and Valencia showed their best maneuver of the game. A cross pass that Hugo used to defeat Duro Oblak with a precise touch. The VAR corrected and converted the goal into a direct free kick. The set also served to recognize that new hierarchies are also beginning to be established among the rojiblancos. It was De Paul who performed it, wrapping a bagel, who greeted the squad closely. He teaches his precise touch more and more, after a year and a half without appearing to him.
Atlético didn’t take long to resolve the game on restart. After three minutes, a gallop and a shot from Llorente that Depay couldn’t pin. The ball fell to Carrasco and he set up a wall with De Paul that got the Belgian ready to execute Mamardashvili. Dropped to the left, a position not unfamiliar to him from his under-21 and Juve days, Morata took a moderate pass for Lemar to cross and end up crushing Valencia.
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