Atlético leaves Manchester with a simple scratch

• Direct Narration and Statistics

While the clock was consumed in the Etihad, with the permanent threat of greater damage, the roar of the red and white fans echoed.

Nobody was surprised by what happened between the walls of the City stadium.

Nobody went home without hope.

On the contrary.

Atlético bet their cards on the counterattack, sustained again by that unbreakable defensive spirit, and ended with a healable bruise in a week, on the Wanda Metropolitano.

The blue hurricane failed to rip out his soul, despite his intentions.

At least that's what the red-and-white players thought while the Oasis Wonderwall sounded over the public address system.

The semifinals, yes, require a comeback at the Wanda.

In the rain, leaden and constant, lightning flashed.

Flashes of blue light that roamed the

area like a pack of hungry wolves.

It was a threat posted on the wire fence that

had devised to replicate the joyful staging of

's boys .

Two coaches of similar size in the band, both physically and emotionally, but with very different football concepts.

But the important thing, both in football and in life, is to always have clear ideas.

And of that there was no doubt last night, on the grass of the Etihad, by neither of the two shields.

From the kick-off, the ball was an optical illusion for Atlético.

Nothing they weren't warned about.

That was not his fight.

The ball was always out of his reach, but

was always on the alert for any mistake in City's dizzying blood supply.

, the boy with a red-and-white heart who, three years ago, left Madrid for the second time, turned the English ship at his whim.

In a way, as his coach would have done, if he could have dressed in shorts.

A blue gale was expected, but the Etihad was not the Allianz Munich (2016) or Anfield (2020).

It was something else.

Oblak sniffed out the danger, but he hardly found any problems until the break.

It was more innuendo than actual fire.

Joao Felix, watched

And it is that there were moments that, except for the goalkeeper

, the whole City was in the rojiblanco field.

frontier

, sat several meters ahead of the center circle.

For a few moments, while Simeone's throat was writhing from the band, the game was fought in just 30 meters.

A concentration of 21 soccer players that threatened ruin in any rebound.

However, Oblak went to the locker room without having to repel any local bad intentions.

Vrsaljko

, by the way, had to face

an initial migraine that he calmed down with courage.

Atlético barely went out on the adventure a couple of times in the first act.

He didn't seem too worried about it either.

The start, of course, was Joao Félix, always closely watched by several blue shirts.

But the rojiblanco face changed after the break.

He had contained the downpour and he thought it was time to run.

did it

, silenced offensively, with two thoroughbred gallops reminiscent of that night at the Arsenal stadium, only the matter was a simple spurt.

Foden's disequilibrium

De Bruyne calibrated Oblak for the first time that night on the way to game time.

It was with a direct free kick that the Slovenian goalkeeper saved with some difficulty.

Those not so distant days in which the goalkeeper navigated between doubts, seem to be kept under lock and key.

For this reason, Atlético's commitment last night remained firm.

Also, because

, a replacement for Giménez, showed the good side of him and

also not out of place when life requires suffering.

He knows what that is, beyond the field.

The night opened when Guardiola waved his wand with his triple change.

The diabolical

discovered the first crack in Atlético and

, full of power, gave his people a lethal attack, with which he managed to outwit Oblak.

With which he was able to cross the stone that had been found in front of him.

The rojiblancos had bet everything on the counterattack, to suffocate a hurricane that ended up ripping off some tiles.

Guardiola anticipated in the preview that Atlético is capable of denying you what you are.

And last night, for a long time, he tried to do it with Manchester City.

With the runner-up in Europe and the leader of the Premier who was far superior in the first round.

It will be at the Metropolitano, within a week, where it will be revealed who has the best solution for the tie.

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