Atlético believes but dies on the shore without gunpowder

It was close, very close, but Atlético was left with honey on their lips. He managed to reduce the fearsome Manchester City, so dominant in England, to a very poor version, even stingy, but he lacked gunpowder to find the goal he needed and that he deserved in a second half of full mattress dominance. Simeone’s team deserved more, improved compared to the Etihad. He was faithful to his signs of identity and although he lacked a point of daring in the first part, after the break he gained meters and scared Guardiola’s pupils, saved by the bell and resorting to those arts of other football a priori so far from the libretto by the Catalan coach.

The aggressive high pressure of Atlético in the first minutes showed from the start the mattress intention of gaining meters in the opposite field with respect to the match in Manchester. While City insisted on trying to defend their advantage through possession, Simeone’s team made it difficult for him to move by biting. Lodi was the indecipherable element for the English defensive network at the beginning, with his classic additions to the attack, but Gundogan attributed the first chance essay, with a deflected shot.

Stones also tried it with his head before the aerial clash between Foden and Felipe that left City’s best player in the first leg in a bad way. The English continued with a spectacular bandage in a duel already in the predictable terms, again under the control of possession by Guardiola’s men but this time with a more active Atlético, better in the recovery before the counterattack and with Savic as a true cacique behind.

Once again a close game, with few concessions to joy. Reinildo providentially intervened and not without a certain amount of danger before a frightening volley from De Bruyne. This time it was not the already famous 5-5-0, but a line of five, another of four and Joao Félix as spearhead. Atlético kept the potential ‘citizen’ without fright, until a pass from Mahrez to Walker found the rojiblanca crack for the English side to put the ball into the heart of the area, where Gundogan sent it to the post with everything in his favor before meeting the bulky Felipe in a second head attempt.

The Madrid team weathered the storm as well as it could, before stretching with a shot from Kondogbia, in the first and only shot between the three sticks of another very scoring first half. The tie was still on the wire, yes, but with the feeling that if every centimeter on the green was a victory, the goal that equalized the contest would have to be fought with blood, sweat and tears.

the step forward

Atlético needed a few minutes of arreón and seemed to return to the grass ready to do so. The sacrificed Griezmann ran into space and quickly produced a slightly deflected shot by Laporte, who held up well against the French attacker. He invited hope for the mattress step forward after the restart and the Metropolitan boiler increased the environmental pressure even more when a shot by Lemar from the edge met Rodri on his way to the goal defended by Ederson.

Guardiola twisted the gesture in the band, with a gray City, denatured, dominated and seriously threatened by a volley from Griezmann that was lost licking the post of the English goal. The Premier League leader was unrecognizable against Atlético at the time. ‘Now or never’, those in red and white thought, buoyed up by the windy scarves typical of the long-awaited Calderón. Simeone looked towards the bench and pulled Carrasco, Correa and De Paul to launch himself into an open grave for the goal. The third had him close to the first, but he missed the high shot after service from the incombustible Llorente. The Argentine midfielder was also close in a deflected volley and his compatriot Correa rushed in with City already totally locked in their domains.

Guardiola was so overwhelmed that he pulled Fernandinho as a resource to hold down a rival already totally overwhelmed with Luis Suárez and Cunha. Until the last moment a laudable Atlético threatened, in a final marked by the expulsion of Felipe, who inexplicably lost his nerve. The subsequent tangana precipitated an ugly ending, absolutely tense. The City wasted time and resorted to all the arts of other football had and for having, surpassed by a mattress faith deserving of greater prize.