• Direct Narration and statistics

Atletico played and the match ended 2-0 thanks to a goal in a corner kick and another almost at the discount, with the opponent mired in his own frustration. It seems a thousand times written chronicle of a hundredfold encounter, but there is a subtle difference: in Eibar, the whole of Simeone was a victim and not an executioner. So many times won the Atlético who did not know how to turn around the situation, devoid of antidote for his own poison. That of Ipurua was the story of the hunted hunter and not even the casualties serve as an excuse, since in front of the four of the mattresses the Eibar presented six and almost all of the headlines. He made the need under the Mendilibar team, in need of a self-esteem shot like the one he served last night before an Atlético parco in football, well below what his hierarchy in Spanish football presupposes.

In Ipurua, it was shown, everything is different, although the passage of time and the money invested have been homogenizing the stadium with the rest of the League. There is no more raffle of the ham, but the free boxes of the buildings that surround it are still maintained and you can listen to the Basque version of the Porompompero of Manolo Escobar while the public is arriving. Actually, the lyrics have nothing to do with the original, but Atlético players don't know that. Some noticed the coincidence of chords in the middle of the warm-up and smiled. Although perhaps it was because, despite the Sirimiri, the temperature was less criminal than expected and the grass a carpet.

Nor is it played in Eibar when the public address announces the rival line-up, even when the opponent is from the Atlético cache. Although perhaps it is also because the miracle has become customary, year after year, and the armored hobby has lost part of the fervor of the first years. That allowed the Atlético fans present in the match (some suffering from a curious tic on the right arm) to colonize the animation in the goal defended by Oblak in the first part.

Of course, that effusivity was soon mutilated by the events, by the unsettled dawn of Atlético, perhaps relaxed in excess by the full of victories in Ipurua achieved so far. Five minutes later, Eibar already sniffed the punishment, but the wild card Oblak prevented a lateral foul by Pedro León from becoming the first goal of the match. Nothing could do, however, when shortly thereafter Esteban Burgos brought shine to the laboratory of Mendilibar's rehearsed plays, taking advantage of Enrich's hairstyle in a corner to enter only in the background. The linier annulled him in the first instance for offside, but the VAR corrected him and incidentally made an appointment with his eye doctor.

The goal was a reflection of what was seen until then and also of what came next. Faced with an intense Eibar in every span of land and colossal in disputes and split balls, Atlético seemed to still have its head in Jeddah, in the failed penalty shootout or in the expulsion of Valverde, who knows, anywhere but in Ipurua. Only Oblak and Felipe seemed to live up to what Eibar was demanding from Atlético.

Thomas's sanity

Thus passed a horrific first half of Simeone's. Thomas , the man who, in addition to silencing Orellana, brought judgment and sanity in the rojiblanco chaos, took them out of the mess. The more balls that passed through the Ghanaian's feet, the better color was given to Atlético. From the locker room he returned with new verve and the same wicks, but he failed to capture those good minutes on the scoreboard, propitiated to a large extent by the incorporation of Saul into the attack from the left-back position, an alleged resource that has become a custom.

Morata had a couple of approaches, but did not take advantage of them. And it is not new. Advanced statistics show that it is the League player who fails more clearly (14, two more than Luuk De Jong, four more than Ekambi and Willian José). No wonder, therefore, that Simeone begs for a striker, much as last night was not the main lack of his team.

As a last resort, the Cholo pulled the Camel and Óscar youth players instead of Joao Felix - disappointing one more day - and Vitolo. By then, Atlético had already lost the spark it had for a few minutes and was invaded by the frustration caused by Eibar's resistance. Expósito, on the edge of the discount, put the icing on the armored victory from the front of the area and the conviction for an Atlético that is already eight points behind the lead.

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