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As much as he twisted the gesture, Diego Pablo

Simeone

could not find the solution to his colleague Javier

Aguirre

's riddle .

It's not the first time.

At the start of Atlético's first League with Cholo, in October 2013, the Mexican coach interrupted the march of a team that would end up being champions on the last day, on the Camp Nou pitch.

Aguirre, who managed to recover the Champions League anthem at the Vicente Calderón, after an 11-year absence, also grabbed a point from the Metropolitano, during his time with Leganés.

In Mallorca, the rojiblancos nailed the knee after an immaculate streak of six wins in a row.

After a penalty that slows his way to the next Champions League.

A downturn in the face of dreaming of the comeback against Manchester City.

"We didn't play a good game against a rival that closed very well behind. The rival took us to what was convenient for them and we didn't know how to find answers," Simeone admitted, minutes after savoring a defeat in the League again.

He had spent almost two months, since that embarrassing stumble against

Levante

, on February 16, that he had not experienced such an unpleasant texture.

He did it again against Mallorca, the team that, at dawn in December, unleashed the biggest crisis of the Simeone era.

That

Kubo

goal in added time unleashed a storm of four straight losses and a thousand and one doubts.

Because of that depression, of that lash at the Metropolitano, Atlético is today submerged in a rough fight for a place in the next Champions League.

In his first home game in charge of Mallorca, Aguirre set up a trap for Simeone that ended up being lethal.

On a grass that was as short as it was parched, an rojiblanco team that lacked ideas during an after-meal conversation that turned out to be indigestible got stuck.

Griezmann

and

Koke

, unrecognizable, left for the break.

But none of his teammates was able to find the way to the goal of a

Sergio Rico

who probably did not remember such a quiet afternoon.

The Balearic team, who had just lost 11 of their last 13 games, ended up becoming an insurmountable wall.

"The Etihad took its toll on us"

Everything was triggered after

Reinildo hit

Maffeo

's foot

.

A contact that Martínez Munera (also the VAR) considered sufficient to signal a penalty.

"He was covered and if the referee charged him, and the VAR did not call him, then it was a penalty," Cholo summarized about the controversy, in the press room of the Visit Mallorca Estadi, as the Balearic venue is now called.

Jan Oblak

was one of the few who was saved from the flames.

And it is not that he had too much work, beyond a superb hand against a long shot from

Oliván

.

However, despite sensing the direction, he was unable to reply to

Muriqi 's shot.

, in the penalty that marked the end of the formidable rojiblanca streak.

"Reinildo has also told me that it was not a penalty. I also told the referee that for me that is never a penalty because he takes the ball away from him. It is football, it is a contact sport," lamented the Slovenian goalkeeper, after the second defeat in four days.

From Manchester to Majorca.

"Surely the game at the Etihad has taken its toll. We've been a bit tired, heavy... We haven't played the game we should have and nothing came of it," added Oblak, who wore the captain's armband after Koke's substitution in Rest.

A stumbling block that was not foreseen in that roadmap that Atlético wrote in February, when it began its takeoff.

At times, he recovered that impotent version that made him go into a tailspin between December and January.

The fight for a place in the next Champions League, after the victories of Sevilla and Betis, is today more raw than last week.

And the comeback against City, seen the arguments on the green, today looks almost like a utopia.

But tomorrow is another day.

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