Atlético's embarrassment against ten

Direct Chronicle

Sunk in a chronic game crisis, Atlético no longer wins even against 10. An hour in superiority against Espanyol did nothing more than verify a team devoid of football, which João Félix rescued from a greater disaster with a goal with the one who claims again that he is something more than the fourth or fifth striker.

Simeone's team does not escape the football cloud that surrounds him, unable to impose himself in numerical advantage, also fragile by conceding a goal that condemned him even more and aggravated his status as a team installed on the football plain.

ATM Athletic

1

Griezmann (Lemar, min. 72), Savic, Morata (Matheus Cunha, min. 73), Kondogbia (Witsel, min. 65), De Paul (Correa, min. 45), Oblak, Reinildo Mandava, Carrasco (João Félix, min 65), Giménez, Nahuel Molina and Marcos Llorente

ESP Spanish

1

Braithwaite (Javi Puado, min. 55), Vinicius, Cabrera, Keidi (Sergi Gómez, min. 35), Aleix Vidal (Pol Lozano, min. 88), Brian (Simo, min. 56), Óscar Gil (Omar, min. 88), Darder, Calero, Joselu and Lecomte

Goals

0-1 min.

62: Darder.

1-1 min.

78: Joao Felix.

Referee

Juan Luis Pulido Santana

Yellow cards Brian (min. 34), Braithwaite (min. 52), Kondogbia (min. 59), Lecomte (min. 74), Giménez (min. 82), Aleix Vidal (min. 85), João Félix (min. 86) and Omar (min. 95)

Red cards Cabrera (min. 28)

The appointment was a compendium of all the ills that loom over Simeone's team, including the division and the discomfort of a fan who is disheartened game by game with what he sees.

The staff was patient, but everything has a limit.

The runrún before the losses or the bad deliveries exploded in individual whistles at the end of the first half and the match.

The emptiness of the stands at the south end and some bald spots in the stands, usually full, confirmed that the wicks are short in this sickly and downcast Atlético.

The accompaniment of whistles when a majority chanted Simeone's name betrayed the social crack despite the institution's and the coach's own claim for unity.

The whistles at the entrance of the Athletic Front at the end of the first half ended up corroborating the social fracture.

With the division impregnated in the atmosphere and the prevailing silence, the rojiblancos unfolded under the flag of effort that Griezmann raises.

A couple of his recoveries tried to show the path of redemption to a group that plays under the affectation of its European failure and its league irregularity.

More information

Video with the summary and the goals of Atlético-Espanyol

It was not difficult for Espanyol to weather that initial attempt by the rojiblancos to redeem themselves from the impetus of Griezmann, who became the icon of a group transformation that did not come.

It was enough for him to wait for the flat football that has accompanied his rival for weeks to emerge.

Diego Martínez's team seemed delighted to be in the middle of a match without areas.

The process of the game found the same endless path that so vulgarizes Simeone's team.

De Paul, who tried long and short, X-rayed that irregularity that condemns his team.

He alternated good and bad passes equally.

Coming from where he comes from, you can even point out a certain improvement because he at least tried to put into practice the main virtue of signing him: long displacement.

Perhaps that earned him so that a generalized reprimand was not sung,

although not for Simeone to leave him in the dugout at the break.

De Paul plays now more focused, along with one of the pivots, either Kondogbia, as against Espanyol, or Witsel relegated to the bench.

The case of the Belgian is also significant.

He has played better starting the game as a central defender than as a central midfielder, his natural position.

As a midfielder, he has perceived on the front line how badly the team plays and has entered into the same dynamic as the rest.

desperate

Nothing happened, until Cabrera took down Morata in a running struggle, ignoring the ball more than 30 meters from the goal.

He was the last man and the referee determined the expulsion of the blue and white central defender.

Atlético had an hour of play ahead of them to defeat an inferior rival.

But the advantage seemed more like a slab.

One more ton of pressure for a group that weighed too much that not winning was another period bump.

From a couple of Reinildo's internships he scratched a couple of occasions for the reappeared Marcos Llorente, lacking finesse in a frank shot and precipitated in a header without any mark.

More information

Simeone: "At least we won't lose because the game looked ugly"

The lack of ideas and imbalance removed Simeone, who sought to shake his team with Correa for the irregular De Paul.

It also took a little while for the Argentine's electricity to dilute.

And the worst came.

Espanyol's goal, a counter culminated at will at the far post by Darder.

There Simeone had no choice but to bring in Witsel, João Félix, Lemar and Cunha in two shots before the setback that was coming.

Now only the desperate attack remained.

That the blows of inspiration did what the combined game did not offer him.

An ordeal and all or nothing, forced by the shame of a defeat that was promised hard and heartbreaking.

A header from Giménez and a shot from Morata that bounced off an Espanyol defender when he seemed to go in anticipated the equalizer.

It was João Félix who caught the tie with a violent left foot after a control with his chest on the run.

The Portuguese, with an imperial jump of

of a lifetime, demanded that Lecomte arrive with his mittens at the squad.

Again, the relegated fifth forward of the team defended whether he really deserved that stripe reduction.

Nothing is left over for this Atlético and less so for one of its most unbalanced players.

João Félix was still able to win the match with a maneuver that lacked a more useful touch to complete the cut with which his marker was cleaned.

Giménez had the last one, but he lacked ankle spin.

That was the last great opportunity for Atlético, who took over in the final minutes all the pastiness that surrounds his football.

And what is worse, even against 10.

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