• News: Correa and Vrsaljko, both positive for Atlético de Madrid's coronavirus

At around 8:00 p.m. on Monday, the Atlético players stepped onto the grass of Cerro del Espino de Majadahonda for the last time, since this Tuesday they will catch a flight to Lisbon. And they did it a bit still with fear in their bodies, after a long night waiting for the results that the PCR tests hid. Hence, more than one (and not only players) found it difficult to sleep. The positives of Ángel Correa and Sime Vrsaljko, officially unveiled this Monday at noon, but known the same Sunday within the club, forced to repeat the tests and live with the fear that someone else infected would emerge before facing Leipzig in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. It was feared that the calm rojiblanco panorama could be altered by some more positive in the template.

At around 8:00 p.m. on Monday, Atlético should have taken off for the Portuguese capital, the scene of the eight-eighth final of the Champions League. However, he was starting training in Majadahonda, hundreds of kilometers from Lisbon. Diego Pablo Simeone , always jealous of having everything well tied up before any big event, had been forced to urgently retouch his studied roadmap. And, in addition, he had suddenly lost Correa, one of his trusted men and the main agitator when matches get stuck.

An important absence for the game against Leipzig, which could become a reinforcement if Atlético reach the semifinals or the final. In the event that he was negative in future tests, UEFA could give permission for him to rejoin, according to rojiblancas sources.

At that time, both Ángel Correa and Sime Vrsaljko, still convalescing from an arthroscopy in his left knee, remained isolated in their homes yesterday, without presenting any symptoms. The Croatian full-back found himself by surprise (forced by the plague of injuries from his teammates) with an unexpected return to the team at the end of January. Not a single duel was lost in the entire month of February. Not even the first leg against Liverpool , in which he had to contain the champion at Wanda. Simeone also pulled him in the intense extra time at Anfield . His absence, in football, will be intangible. I feel fine. Some parameters are a little above what is allowed and I have to be isolated, "explained the Croatian on his social networks.

It will not be for Correa, despite the fact that Atlético has plenty of resources to hide it. The Argentine has appeared in all of his team's Champions matches and, despite his notable downturn in the LaLiga restart in June, he is one of the players with the best offensive numbers. In his backpack: seven goals, eight assists and a great harmony with Morata , the top scorer (16). You will not be able to look out on the balcony of Lisbon until your body shows no trace of the virus.

Four youth players

In the club offices they held their breath for a few hours. "We have to wait," they maintained on Sunday, as soon as the two asymptomatic positives were known. Above all, Correa, who had shared Saturday's training with his teammates. The PCR tests that same day would reveal his contagion of coronavirus, which, for a few hours, stopped the pulse of the rojiblanco team, given the possibility that it had spread to another player from the squad.

«Angel and Sime are calm. Surprised, but calm », they slid from the Madrid entity. With the two of them, after Renan Lodi was positive in May , as soon as training resumed, at least a dozen footballers on the squad would have already been in contact with the disease and developed antibodies. At Atlético everyone released their breath after confirming that there was no more affected and that it was time to think again only about football.

Even Lisbon, a cursed city since that 2014 final against Real Madrid, will fly today and remain focused for Thursday's decisive match against Leipzig (9:00 pm). An expedition of more than 90 people, with the homegrown players Dos Santos , Manu Sánchez , Riquelme and Toni Moya , to try to storm the continental throne. Calm again after the scare. And is that the coronavirus lurks around every corner.

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