Madrid (AFP)

Jan Oblak holds Atlético Madrid in his gloves: the Slovenian goalkeeper, exemplary captain of a ship tossed since the start of the season, will still try to save the Colchoneros in the knockout stages of the Champions League Wednesday at home Liverpool (9 p.m.).

The big night ? After the feat of the first leg, where Atlético won 1-0 against the reigning European champion in Madrid, will Oblak be able to keep his clean sheet and still contain the trident of attack Sadio Mané - Mohamed Salah - Roberto Firmino?

Again, the whole "colchonero" club relies on its goalkeeper to save its season. While the people of Madrid are too far in the league (5th to 13 points behind the leader Barcelona, ​​58 pts), eliminated in the King's Cup and the Spanish Super Cup, the Champions League is the only competition where Diego Simeone's men still have something to hope for.

And Jan Oblak (27, 28 goals conceded in 38 games this season at Atlético) may well be the man for the job.

- Oblak, the hideout -

Fourth in the Lev Yachine 2019 trophy (which rewards the best goalkeeper in the world) behind the Brazilian Alisson Becker, winner of the first edition of this trophy but injured in a hip for the reception of the Madrilenians, the Slovenian has often been decisive in the great events.

He has been a bit of misery for Atlético this season, winning 16 matches without conceding a goal and keeping the rear guard of Atlético at the top (2nd Liga defense with 21 goals conceded, behind the 19 cashed by Real Madrid) ... despite the glaring lack of goals.

In 2016, during the last major European campaign of the Colchoneros (they had been defeated in the final by Real Madrid by Zinédine Zidane, 1-1, 5-3 tab), Oblak had been able to silence the overpowered Bayern of Pep Guardiola and another legendary attacking trio, Barça's "MSN" (Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar), on April 13, 2016 (2-0) in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League.

Capital, but not enough: in the porter's record, the "Big Ears Cup" is still missing, while Atlético has reached the C1 final three times (1974, 2014, 2016) without ever winning it.

- "Do not think about it" -

No one in Europe has been able to knock this Liverpool down in the last two Champions League playoff matches. Even less in his den of Anfield, where the Reds have averaged 2.3 goals scored per game in nine Champions League games for two years.

And his Barça counterpart Marc-André ter Stegen knows something about it: in May 2019, after the Catalans' 3-0 semi-final first leg, the German goalkeeper had conceded four goals in the second leg in England (doubled by Divock Origi and by Georginio Wijnaldum).

"Yes, it's true that we will face a great goalkeeper, but above all a team," said Oblak in a press conference on the eve of the first leg. "We mustn't think about what could happen if we could keep our cage clean. Every game in which we don't take a goal is good to take," he added.

So will Oblak be able to renew the feat of the first leg on Wednesday for its premiere at Anfield? This will be his only objective. In one of the rare stages of C1 still open to the public against the backdrop of the coronavirus epidemic, it's up to him to keep his cage behind closed doors.

© 2020 AFP