Atlético continues to launch into the Champions League

Atlético remains just as reliable. Against Alavés, total control for almost the entire match, offensive jam Over an hour and a triumph that seemed placid in the remaining average after Saúl managed to open the can and Diego Costa extended the penalty distance, but that was complicated by another somewhat absurd maximum penalty by the hand of Koke that Joselu transformed to give your dose of excitement to the party at the discount.

The Metropolitan was visiting a Alavés unrecognizable, with up to nine changes in the starting lineup and Pacheco and Rodrigo Ely as the only survivors of the eleven that faced Osasuna on the previous day. Beyond a free kick by Aleix Vidal without much trouble for the mattress goal, the first good chance of the match was born from Simeone’s tactical kitchen, with a center from Lodi and a deflected header from Morata.

Joao Félix returned to ownership after his double at El Sadar, after leaving from the bench on the visit to Levante, and his first serious appearance did not disappoint. Throw to the pot, Morata comb and acrobatic volley of indisputable aesthetics of the Portuguese who was licking the right post of the door defended by Pacheco. He athletic mastery sometimes it was also in the game against an Alavés locked in his field, waiting to find the Scottish Burke in a long ball, an islet in the middle of the ocean of the red and white defense, a strange situation for a striker more accustomed to drop to the bands.

The game was of total tranquility for Atlético, so much so that in the end he woke up from the lethargy in a counter finished with the auction of Aleix Vidal at the hands of Oblak, angry with his backwardness due to carelessness. Simeone’s team enjoyed a volume of ball possession normally inappropriate for his style, bordering 70%, and his sides stepped more on the opposite half of the field than his own, but such control was not finished translating sometimes.

Domain and local domain, but unsuccessful, because until the break only resulted in a header by Giménez after a consummate specialist center like Trippier and a powerful jump from the Uruguayan central defender. Little reward for so much control and hopeless feeling of anxiety between the rojiblancas rows.

After the break more of the same. He Alavés, well planted tactically on the grass, leaving the weight of the game at the mercy of an Atlético with little depth and unable to make a shot between the three poles. It is not strange therefore that Simeone chose to shake the tree with the entry by Marcos Llorente and Diego Costa half an hour from the end. It was the prelude to 1-0, which had different actors: Trippier, with a free kick of his own, and Saúl, head-first to the net. Llorente’s merit bag also includes having forced the infraction that gave rise to the play.

Both against forced Asier Garitano to change the established plan and his team stretched, leaving a notice in a head shot of Burke. However, the Vitorian tactical movement was also detected by Simeone, who put Carrasco to take advantage of the spaces generated in the Alavés defensive zone. The Belgian tested Pacheco’s reliability with a long shot before another fast man, Llorente, spilled over into Ely’s speed on the right side to enter the area, where Rubén Duarte arrived at the crossing committing a penalty in the judgment of Melero López and also in the opinion of the VAR review. Diego Costa did not forgive from eleven meters to sentence the game, or at least it seemed that way until an absurd penalty by Koke’s hand masterfully transformed him Joselu to give suspense to the final minutes in the Metropolitan.