Narration: This is how we live the game
First Classification
His name is
Luis Suárez
and he solves problems.
After all, that is what any coach asks of his center forward, right?
Let him add ammonia when the games get bogged down, keep faith and determination when the opportunity seems lost, stop the clock when frustration and regret overtake the final whistle.
Being a '9' is not a job but a way of being and that of the Uruguayan is volcanic and accurate.
Without him,
Atlético
would not have won in Vitoria.
With him, this Atlético can go as far as he wants.
He appeared in the discount where the forwards appear, hugging the far post pretending not to be there, camouflaging himself among the undergrowth of Alavés defenders who kept the point they were achieving as a huge treasure.
It was no wonder, after being left with ten players with half an hour ahead and with Atlético ahead on the scoreboard.
But
Simeone's team
, somewhat strange, relaxed excessively, embraced an improper conformism, either because the cold of Mendizorroza petrified or because the partial victory and the numerical superiority acted as a narcotic temptress, and Alavés reached the tie.
Whatever it was, Suárez was there to solve the mess.
And also
Joao Félix
, who gave
Correa
his position in the starting lineup and drew the perfect pass, the one that the goalkeeper does not reach by millimeters and that the defender does not dare to touch because he knows it will be an own goal, as had happened to
Felipe
six minutes before in the opposite goal.
The journey of the ball seemed to be eternal, but Suárez waited for it with infinite patience and diverted it to give Atlético its fifth consecutive victory.
The cobweb of Alavés
Alavés did not deserve such an outcome, after a game in which he gave his best.
It has been a long time since
Pablo Machín
renounced his famous three-central scheme, the one that led him to glory with Girona and with which he succumbed at Sevilla and Espanyol.
He also tried it in Vitoria, but immediately came to the conclusion that it was he who had to adapt to the traditional signs of Alavés and not the other way around.
A radicalized proposal against Atlético, before which the Soriano coach presented a dense line of five midfielders very close to that of four defenders, weaving a dense web in which the warrior
Deyverson
was the one who acted as a lone ranger in search of a counterattack. .
Such accumulation of footballers in so few meters was a problem for Simeone's team, who did not suffer behind but could not get close to
Pacheco's
goal either
.
Thanks to the mobility of the scheme that the 'Cholo' is implementing in recent weeks, the rear of three centrals immediately became a more classic of four defenders, with
Hermoso
as a pure side and
Carrasco
in front, seeking to add more footballers in the last third of the pitch.
Without much success, yes, because Alavés boasted of defensive order and it didn't matter if they attacked him in one way or another.
Red-and-white patience
Atlético, in short, was forced to exhibit what is perhaps its best virtue, the one that rarely stands out because it is not as showy as others: patience.
The mattress set never loses its composure and knows how to wait for its moment to come.
And in Vitoria he arrived in a reckless pass back from beyond the center of the field to which Suárez went with the voracity of the crocodile that observes a clueless prey.
The Uruguayan opened to
Llorente
and the Madrid player drew a diagonal from the right to the front.
There he decided to release his left foot and the ball bounced off
Laguardia on its
way to the goal, preventing Pacheco from reaching a ball that came crying into his net.
Atlético had two more occasions at the beginning of the second half, but in both they chose the pass rather than a frank shot, first Suárez and then Carrasco.
Then, in the 63rd minute, Laguardia was sent off.
A red one that the referee decided after seeing the play repeated.
He determined that
Lemar
, whom he knocked down, was the last player and that he had an obvious scoring chance.
Questionable at least, especially because it was not a decision taken live, but at the request of the VAR, which recommended its viewing to
Martínez Munuera
.
The game seemed to end then and Atlético's mistake consisted in believing that it would be like this.
Alavés, despite being with one less, was gaining meters without Simeone's men seemed to notice it.
Machín burned all his ships taking out his pair of gold,
Joselu
and
Lucas
, and between them they armed the attack that ended with Felipe scoring a goal in his own goal when he tried to avoid the auction of the second of them.
Atlético's blunder seemed incorrigible until Luis Suárez appeared to do what he does best, solve problems.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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