[Sport] Atlético give up in San Mamés and leave the League in a handkerchief

[SougarLord]

 

 

Oh, if the intensity, passion, poise and determination that Athletic showed this Sunday had shown it in the two lost Cup finals, many in Bilbao will now think. And they will be right in the lament. Given that it is already late, that nothing he does will be worth him to be champion, Marcelino's team chose to resurrect to condition the outcome of the League, to set fire to the fight for the title. The most convincing Athletic in months defeated Atlético (2-1), which is still the leader, but already with the breath of the pursuers in the neck: they have Madrid and Barça at two points - with one game pending - and three Sevilla, who is still there even though nobody pays much attention to him. Simeone's are still dependent on themselves, but they no longer have a network.

Perhaps the Madrid team did not deserve so much punishment, but it paid dearly for its inability to set up clear shots. Not even the return from the bench of Luis Suárez -almost unpublished- and Joao Félix -more virguero than practical- gave Atlético the wings it needed to defeat Athletic. He managed to tie the initial goal, but Iñigo Martínez returned him to the previous point, leaving Cholo's men to zero in San Mamés and filling him with doubts that he no longer had for the final stretch of the championship.

Neither the return of Luis Suárez, Joao Félix and Lemar altered Simeone's initial plans. The Argentine deployed on San Mamés, from a kind of very dynamic 4-3-3, the same 11 players who had beaten Eibar (5-0) and Huesca (2-0), with the only variation of Felipe instead of the sanctioned Giménez. More doubts generated the alignment that Marcelino was going to raise, after so many recent setbacks. Already devoid of qualifying objectives, the Asturian seems determined to take advantage of this final stretch of the League so that the club's young projects can add minutes in the First Division. Hence the bets on Villalibre and Sancet in the positions that Williams and Raúl García usually occupy - last minute preventive drop due to a few tenths of fever - and also the presence of Morcillo and Vencedor.

However, this is football, the certainties that some accumulated and the doubts of the others were reduced to erroneous previous material in just eight minutes. After three games of total drought, Athletic once again celebrated a goal after a quick counterattack to Lodi's back. Capa took the center out and Berenguer was lucky to bounce off an Atlético defender and the ability to intuit the new direction of the ball to overtake Bilbao with a header. The Navarrese now has eight in the league, more than anyone in Athletic and only behind Llorente (11) in the total list of midfielders.

The goal felt like a stab at a flat and predictable Atlético. Koke, Saúl and Herrera were inconsequential, Llorente and Trippier failed to display their usual depth and Correa was always too lonely for Atlético to take advantage of his mischief. Only a skirmish of his in the area brought Simeone's men closer to the equalizer before the break. Without success, of course. In front, Atlético was witnessing a resurrection, that of an Athletic with courage and intensity that grew from the pair formed on the right by Berenguer and Capa and the good work of Sancet in the playmaker.

 

After the break, the movie was very different. Atlético gave their football a couple more speeds and bottled up Athletic in their area, accumulating chances that were more abundant than clear during the initial quarter of an hour. A harassment and demolition - only interrupted by a counterattack from Morcillo poorly resolved by Sancet - that Simeone wanted to promote by taking out all the artillery at once: Suárez, Joao Félix and Lemar by Trippier, Saúl and Herrera. There were so many attackers on the field that it didn't even look like Atlético. Even Cholo seemed to realize the anomaly and minutes later he put Torreira through Correa.

The changes didn't really change anything. Atlético continued to be installed around Simón's area, reaching those positions very easily but without the ability to set up clear shots. Until he found the exit to the labyrinth by the usual way, in a corner kick headed by Savic at the near post, taking advantage of Simón's terrible start. How could Atlético imagine that there was going to be a replica of its minimized rival and that it was going to arrive by the same channel, with an imperial header from Iñigo Martínez in a corner that leaves the League on fire and reminds Athletic that football does not it is always as cruel as it had seemed to him in this last month.