"An Atlético like the old ones".
It was a longing, like a slogan, made words by Koke the day he became an Atlético legend.
A call to return to the origins of cholismo, to that unity of football and heart that elevated him to the eight-thousanders of the Champions League.
But in Bruges, recent scene of disappointments, nothing is further from reality.
A night of disasters, wanting and not being able, a group aimlessly, a defeat for the entanglement.
Ferran Jutglà uncovered all the red and white weaknesses.
Neither Griezmann in the eleven despite his unusual contractual situation, nor Savic and Giménez together in the center of defense, nor all the good vibes of Pizjuán.
Jan Breydel became a nightmare, a series of catastrophic misfortunes - injuries, errors and even missed penalties - that already leaves Atlético with no margin for error, with the first place in the group really complicated.
Because his executioner, the revelation team that returns a visit to the Metropolitan on Wednesday, unexpectedly counts his games by wins.
The intentions, an Atlético playing "together", the ranks tight, things clear, it didn't matter if the ball was kneaded by the enthusiastic local team, they soon came to nothing.
Simeone's plan went awry in five minutes.
After half an hour, the Belgian impetus, the good intentions of Buchanan on the right, was permanently cooled by the temper of Atlético, who did not flinch, as if the script was already known.
The ball was from Bruges, but the poison looked like a visitor.
Crouched, in the boots of Carrasco first and then Morata was the initial goal that was not, promises of a night that the hero was going to have in front of him.
Both occasions started from the right, from the boots of a Nahuel Molina who later was not so fine in his own area.
In the sixth minute, Griezmann, a surprise in the eleventh -starting for the second time this season-, gave him a great pass.
The Argentine connected with Carrasco on the opposite wing and his shot missed the goal due to the defender's rebound.
Even clearer, perhaps too much, was the one-on-one that Morata squandered in minute 25, in another great deep pass by Molina.
Mignolet's right foot ruined the striker just as everything came crashing down at the Jan Breydel.
First, with Marcos Llorente's muscle injury, for which Correa entered.
And then with the stab of Jutglà, the fashionable boy.
An electric wall with Sowah planted the former Barça player in the area, where he left Nahuel with the ease of a schoolyard and left the first goal on a plate for his teammate.
From Morata's forgiveness, to Llorente's goodbye and Sowah's blow.
Everything could be worse: Giménez stayed in the locker room at halftime, also due to injury (he had returned this Saturday).
And only thanks to the goalkeeper with a thousand hands was not an even more dramatic succession.
Because Kondogbia, in his first intervention, lost a deadly ball that ended in a beautiful shot by Jutglà in the heart of the area.
Oblak and the miracles of him.
The situation became desperate.
Atlético had to manage that anxiety, flow in what was already a crazy night.
The step forward after the break resulted in two arrivals, both caused by two masterful returns by Correa.
But neither Carrasco nor Griezmann had the aim that Jutglà was soon to show, seven goals (and four assists) in the 13 games he has played in the Club Brugge shirt.
With the fang of those who are enraged, a wall with Buchanan culminated in the heart of the area.
A demon.
The jug of cold water for Atlético was going to be worse when, shortly after, Griezmann sent a penalty committed on Cunha off the crossbar.
Everything was already desperate.
And even in that chaos, an Atlético unhorsed and unrecognizable in Bruges, whose future in the Champions League passes, yes or yes, by winning in eight days the same team that last night brought out the colors, did not know how to get anything clear.
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