Bruges decides between tranquility or trouble for Atlético

Bruges marks the path of Atlético in the Champions League. His visit to the Belgian champion this Tuesday, one of the positive surprises so far in the highest European competition, decides whether the mattress team will soon get on track to qualify for the round of 16 or if, on the contrary, they get into a good mess on their journey through the Old Continent. And it is that the margin of error is reduced to the minimum expression for Simeone’s men after the stumble in Leverkusen and with Bruges at a high level, as he made clear with his thrashing of Porto in Do Dragao, an unexpected result that has turned the group upside down.

The team led by the young Carl Hoefkens has challenged its theoretical status as Cinderella in the group with a much better European version than the one it has shown so far in the Belgian championship, where it is third, five points behind Antwerp. The former Barça player Ferran Jutglà is one of the sensations of this Brugge with his seven goals and four assists in thirteen games. The Catalan leads the attack of a team with great physical display on their own ground and Vanaken, Nielsen or the veteran goalkeeper Mignolet as other references.

Faced with these threats, Atlético needs more than ever to drive away their ghosts in Belgium, where they have never won, and prolong their good moment after the solid victory against Sevilla at the Sánchez Pizjuán, a sweet return to competition after the national team break. The good red-and-white staging in the territory of Lopetegui’s depressed team augurs continuity for the Champions League, with a 4-1-4-1 scheme, Witsel ahead of a gala defense, a reinforced midfield and the doubt between the bet for the work of Cunha or the inclusion of Joao Félix.

The Portuguese, weighed down by the irregularity since he arrived at the Metropolitan, is going through one of those recurring lean moments. He was a substitute at Pizjuán and jumped onto the pitch in the final stretch, with just three minutes of the game remaining. The same thing happened to him with the Portuguese team in the duel against Spain, although despite still being far from his best physical version and accumulating half a year without scoring, his quality could be decisive in a match that will mark the future of athletics in the Champions.