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To the missing film director José Luis Cuerda, the beginning of Atlético 2020 would have given him a script of the most surreal. What if a derailment in León, before a Second B. What if one injury after another until adding 19 this season. What if a Super Cup buried in the penalties of a derby in the desert. That if a striker like Edinson Cavani is chased to cheer up the gesture to Simeone (and the team) and ends up returning home a midfielder, offensive but midfielder, like Yannick Carrasco . «Leave yourself, let yourself be! That a striker in the area is always a striker in the area, ”the Argentine coach would have said had he been one of Cuerda's actors. Last night, thanks to Correa, the only healthy forward, and after three straight defeats and no goal in favor, he woke up in the Wanda Metropolitano, which is not small.

And it started to happen because Atlético climbed out to its captain. Koke, absent in LaLiga for injury since December (he lost five games), came back stealing the first ball to Granada and giving Correa the first league goal of Atlético in more than a month. Coincidentally or not, the squad was around when Eteki and Duarte collided like two bowling trying to clear a ball in the area. A simple throw-in was the simplest formula for the only rojiblanco striker who survived on the grass to break the fateful spell that had been accompanying his own. Because with Koke , located ahead of Llorente and Thomas, his team regained the soul and much of the tactical sense lost in the January desert. Sometimes it is not perceived on the grass, but it always ends up missing when it is not. He ended up suffocated, like the team. But waiting for a 9 to come back, good is your breath.

Atlético lit the duel with a good dose of vitality and energy. He already did it at the Bernabéu, but there was no aim that Correa had this time. Speed ​​and nerve that led Vitolo to whip a span of Aaron's goal, the Andalusian goalkeeper who premiered in Primera. However, those positive symptoms were easing as Granada grabbed the firm and thought that there are still a few days to try to storm the sky in the Cup. Diego Martínez , the visiting coach, waved the board and, despite the numerous changes, the Granada balanced the matter responding with the same energy received at startup. Roberto Soldado , always at the limit, examined again and again the forced and innovative couple of Savic-Hermoso plants. But in the mud there are usually no fish.

Oblak's blow

Precisely a mistake by Hermoso, headline a month later by the sanction of Felipe, could entangle Atlético at the dawn of the second act. The rojiblancos responded to the counterattack, their natural state, but Saul's shot ran into Aaron's first serious mittens. The Andalusians never gave up the helm of the game. Unlike. He pushed into the area of Jan Oblak while Soldier fluttered with his classic flutter awaiting some oversight. But his most poisonous shot, spur, which would have ended inside in front of any other goalkeeper, was repelled by the Slovenian.

Carrasco stepped on the grass of the Metropolitan who left by surprise two years ago to enlarge his checking account in China. The Belgian, who executed the Andalusians on that excellent autumn afternoon of 2016, was the resource to try to calm the hot flashes of an Atlético shrunk and scared by the bad intentions of Granada. His speed and dribbling oxygenated his teammates in the final crisis. When the tremors were louder.

The Andalusians never gave up fighting and Simeone never really knew. Correa's goal ended up being a suffered and thin rope that Atlético traveled in the Wanda as a tightrope walker. A mistake, quite rude, yes, was the condemnation of a threatening Granada that forced the rojiblancos to hold their breath until that last corner. Although the important thing, after so much darkness, was to wake up. Deep down it didn't matter how.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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