The two readings of an honorable farewell from Atlético against City: What if another plan is also possible?

• Atlético Simeone's intentional applause and a dart at Pep Guardiola

• Chronicle Atlético dies with honor in the Metropolitan

• M. City The night that Guardiola was not Guardiola

• Controversy A serious brawl in the Wanda locker room tunnel forces the police to intervene

• The clause 'Who is the coward?', by Iñako Díaz-Guerra

It was almost midnight on Wednesday.

Dozens of Atlético fans waited patiently next to the traffic light that leads to Avenida de Arcentales, where soccer players continued to pass with their flashy vehicles.

A few meters away, at one of the tables in the El Gran Escenario restaurant,

was preparing to have dinner (probably not hungry), in the company of his family.

Having people around him has always been his best therapy.

And the elimination against Manchester City, due to all the noise generated after his approach in England, for subduing the British team in a Metropolitano dressed as

, due to that harsh outcome, between ironic applause and anger at the lost opportunity, required a parenthesis .

They have not been easy days for the Argentine coach who, on his way to the battle against City, has had to manage those sharp emotions that losing a father generates.

Wednesday night, intense and unrestrained, lit up two readings.

The first, the most immediate, that Atlético had shaken and dwarfed Manchester City.

's fearsome team

he had finished with the fear in his body, looking for any loophole to scratch a thousandth of the clock.

A sweet farewell to Europe, one might conclude.

The second, obviously, is to question whether the staging at the Etihad, where there was not a single shot on goal by the rojiblancos, with that famous 1-5-5, was reasonable, after contemplating the team's performance at the Wanda .

After seeing that the monstrous-looking City was flesh and blood.

There will be those who think that, without that exercise of resistance, where there was hardly a carelessness, none of what happened in the second leg would have been possible.

That the team could have returned to Madrid in tatters.

There will be no way of knowing.

They will no longer be more than fantasies.

13 shots in 45 minutes

The reality is that Atlético needed 125 minutes of qualifying to calibrate goalkeeper

for the first time .

And, after the break, he ended up going to the mountains in search of a comeback.

Up to 14 times (13 in the second act) he finished off the City goal, although only three were on goal.

The last one, by

, after 100 minutes of the match, already without

on the pitch, was able to extend the outcome until extra time.

That spirit and those numbers served to alleviate the conscience (if it required it) of Simeone's team, who ended up giving his soul with passion, after banishing the fears and precautions that he wore in Manchester.

Perhaps that apparent and voluntary feeling of inferiority was not justified, except because Atlético feels better in that role.

But the reality, despite the ups and downs of this poorly ironed Champions League that has just been put away in the drawer, is that the Madrid team has been able to look unapologetically into the eyes of City and Liverpool.

To the two teams modulated by the magnetism of Guardiola and Klopp, whose image is more seductive than Simeone's.

The ovation from the stands on Wednesday, after dying on his feet, was a test of faith and life of the fans towards his team.

To your technician.

The shaking of Klopp's Liverpool

On October 19, Atlético fell to Liverpool (2-3) at the Metropolitano.

He did it after raising two goals against and unleashing a shiver to

, before the threat of an express comeback (he shot seven times and had a hand in hand).

He also fell on his feet, despite the rigorous expulsion of

, with the German

(the same as Wednesday) as referee.

The dispute was decided by a penalty that was called in the athletic area and stopped in the net area.

It has not been, far from it, the best of Atlético's nine Champions Leagues in a row, despite the nearly 70 million it will receive.

There remains the sweet residue of having mentored two of the best teams in Europe.

But, also, the question still to be resolved as to whether he is prepared not to shrink.

Simeone protests to the fourth referee, during the match against City.AP

Atlético only has to focus on the League.

In that fight to be back, starting in September, on the Champions League stage.

Doubts about Simeone, questioned in his worst winter in Madrid, already seem like a thing of a blurred past.

Although there is still a vital issue to resolve, which is to close your next ticket to Europe.

Another threat of punishment

Yesterday, despite the fact that it was a holiday, there was restlessness in the offices of the rojiblanco club.

The images of what happened in the Wanda locker room tunnel, with

at odds with several City players and

prolonging his dispute with

, circulated through social networks at full speed.

A tackle from

to

, who performed all kinds of somersaults to return to the field, had lit the fuse.

And everything, in a year in which Atlético, for one reason or another, has not stopped receiving sanctions from UEFA.

In March 2021, Savic saw a red card at Stamford Bridge and was banned for four games.

Atlético had to pay 24,000 euros, among other things, for delaying the start of the match.

was suspended for two games for his expulsion against Liverpool, a punishment that was reduced to one after appealing.

At Anfield, Felipe left his team inferior and lost two games.

was red- carded

for grabbing a rival by the neck, keeping him out of the round of 16 and the first leg of the quarter-finals.

And this week, UEFA announced its decision to close 5,000 Metropolitan seats, after the display in Manchester of a Nazi flag by an athletic supporter and, also, for the throwing of objects at the Etihad.

A harsh sequence of punishments that could continue, as they feared yesterday at Atlético, where they no longer trust the decisions of the highest body.

The only certainty is that, in the first European home game next year, there will be 5,000 fewer fans.

The rest is an unknown.

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