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To the children, everything attracts their attention.
It was their day at the Metropolitano and they found one of those endings that more than once they have lived in the courtyard of their schools.
Although what happened, it also left the elders speechless.
And everything, to a great extent, was the fault of Yannick Carrasco.
He opened the Atlético account, on a somewhat awkward afternoon.
He took the corner, after his own cartoon play, which Raúl de Tomás ended up clearing with his arm.
He, without batting an eye, took the penalty, in the 100th minute, after several minutes of uncertainty due to that hand, which ended in front of a screen.
It was Carrasco who, in front of hundreds of children, saved a duel against Espanyol that, for a few moments, seemed badly ironed.
Sometimes victories are just child's play.
"Mom, what did that man with gloves just do?"
And the mother explains to her son that this man is called Jan Oblak, that his mission, as he verified in a header by Cabrera, coming out of a corner, which was the clearest opportunity in the first half, is to prevent the ball enters his goal.
But the kid, one of many in the stands of the Metropolitan, which was Children's Day for a reason, continued to think about the play.
The Atlético goalkeeper had just made a break in the small area to Javi Puado.
He used his right boot as a cape and left Simeone (and much of the stadium) speechless.
"Look, look, daddy, that man wearing black has taken off his jacket."
And the father tells his daughter that this man is Diego Pablo Simeone.
And that it is normal for him to take off his jacket because it is very hot and, also, because he does not stop moving.
And it is that, in the rojiblanco stadium, many children lived their first time.
A spring-summer table where Espanyol became an uncomfortable opponent.
Atletico generated something similar to a headache to enter Diego Lopez's area.
Beyond Marcos Llorente's incursions down the right flank, beyond an attempt by Lodi on the opposite flank, the rojiblancos barely disturbed the blue and white team, well ordered by Vicente Moreno.
"Dad, look, someone is crying. What's wrong?"
And the father explains to his daughter that he was Lemar and that he was injured trying to control a ball.
That many times injuries hurt more psychologically than physically.
That is a bit what happened to the French footballer, when the game, rather boring, without much action, was heading towards the break.
Tom, as everyone in the locker room calls him, had to be consoled by his teammates.
It is the fourth muscular setback that he suffers in a season where the physical has prevented him from embracing the regularity of last season.
"How many people in the band, mommy!"
Her mother clarifies to her son that Atlético is going to make three changes.
What are Griezmann, the one who returned in the summer after a couple of years at Barcelona, Carrasco and Cunha.
And because Joao, Lemar, injured, and Vrsaljko can see them on the bench.
He had barely given her time to finish the explanation when the stadium shook from Darder's fright and, almost immediately, exploded with joy at Carrasco's blow.
It all happened in the 52nd minute. Espanyol entered Oblak's area and the Slovenian goalkeeper responded with one of the usual handballs.
The immediate response to the counterattack was led by Correa, cleaned by Cunha and defined by Carrasco.
It was the first goal that many of the children who populated the Metropolitan saw live.
The older ones went to bed rather late on Wednesday, some of them in tears after the Champions League elimination against Manchester City.
It seemed that Atlético had controlled the game until that first warning from Raúl de Tomás, to which Oblak responded without question or hesitation.
"That gentleman has taken a red piece of paper from another."
And the father, somewhat upset, details that they have expelled one of Atlético, Kondogbia, for an involuntary hand.
That his team will have to play with one less for the remainder of the match.
He almost had no desire to comment that Oblak, after a brilliant afternoon, had just made a blur against De Tomás, who punished that hand that seemed involuntary with a goal.
For more than a quarter of an hour, Atlético, inferior, launched themselves in search of victory over Diego López's goal.
Simeone's team did not give the feeling of having one less cash.
What's more, he conveyed more of a sense of danger than during much of the afternoon.
De Paul's entry brought a little more offensive joy.
But then came that last bugle call from Carrasco.
That hand came hunted by the VAR that De Tomás himself, minutes later, assumed as a sin.
And it all led to that final shot from the Belgian that blew up the stands.
"What happened, mommy? Did we win, mommy?"
But it was not necessary for the mother to respond to the child, that hug was worth a thousand words.
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