Jug of cold water in the Metropolitan

Life at the Civitas turned out like at the Wanda. The field had a new first name (although for the rojiblanco it doesn’t matter: there is only one and it is Metropolitan) to meet the Atleti from before the summer: at times timorous, at times gray, always overcome. And that sixteen seconds it took Morata to greet his fans again, in that state in which he has returned two years later, all shine. He controlled a ball from Koke with class and took a volley to shoot Rulli, who was left lying from the impact of the ball. But the beginning was actually a mirage. Atleti would not return there in a long, long time.

Villarreal is the old torment of Cholo and soon it was shown. A Villarreal that plays as Emery looks: up front and dominant. After Morata’s greeting, he took the ball and control. The Atleti melted under the August dog days in Madrid, in that version closer to the one it was supposed to have left behind: with such gentle pressure that Villarreal brushed it off like someone blowing sand off the beach. Emery’s men took the ball out quickly and slowly, between whistles from a Metropolitan who began to chew on the nerves to come, dizzy between the curves of the red and white and the yellow dance. It was effective as mass production. Foyth destroyed, Parejo organized, Lo Celso stunned and Jackson dug behind the backs of Nahuel, Llorente and Lemar. All to launch Pedraza while Gerard entangled the midfielder with his back game. One broken every time.

The clock had not reached twenty and Oblak had already forced himself to take out those gloves that were sanctified again with the arrival of Reinildo. First against Lo Celso, then against Capoue. The beeps rose decibels without Koke, Llorente or Carrasco appearing there. But if Lemar was submerged in one of his abysses, João was always too far from everything. He could be read in his gestures without the ball, in his mouth he contracted for going down to receive so close to his central defenders, so far from Rulli.

While, the Villarreal, to his. Sending under the whistles as if he were playing without a rival. He was able to reach the break ahead of the scoreboard, but Gerard pushed the ball into the net with his hand and the referee saw it. Canceled. The break came with the 0-0 and Atleti with blush recovered after the hydration break. João began to connect, but no meaningful balls continued to reach Morata, the only one who showed his face in the general non-appearance.

Nahuel’s ‘horribilis’ debut before ‘his’ people

If the second part started as if the first had not finished, at the hour Simeone moved the tree: inside De Paul and Bites. He was looking to start off the haggard tone by accumulating a lot of good touch in front of the ball line. The first time he had, Griezmann escaped in a stampede towards Rulli. His shot flew out but it sounded like a gong: Atleti came back to life. Just after Cunha and Correa entered the field. The good thing is that together they braided, as soon as they stepped on it, the Argentine’s career for the Brazilian’s auction, an occasion that forced Rulli to take him out on the line. The bad thing is that Simeone, from this summer, did not learn what football has taught him: that João must play until after the referee blows the final whistle, just in case. But João and Morata left and Villarreal’s reply to the rojiblancos’ sparks was the goal, Nahuel through. The minutes of its premiere began horrible before the fans.

He dug the grave on the side with a resounding mistake, trying to control with his good leg, with a changed leg, inward. The tie that he put on that ball that was dead in the area was removed by Yeremy, sending it to the bottom of Oblak’s net (injuring himself at the same time, by the way). The match was broken, concentrating everything that had not happened before in these minutes. Cunha sent a ball to the crossbar and Carrasco’s header on the rebound was saved by Rulli, epic, on the line. As epic was Reinildo’s race to take a goal from Gerard’s boot. But, while Nahuel was going to the shower, expelled with red for an entrance to Baena, Gerard would escape for the last time to break his particular curse at the same time as Emery. First goal against the rojiblancos in the first victory of their coach, at 15th and 17th it was the charmwhile the summer suddenly ended in the Metropolitan.