Simeone and the wear of an era

• Champions Atlético, eliminated after an incredible and cruel outcome

• Opinion A failure and a culprit

The day after one of the most unusual endings in memory, the harsh reality remains.

Without reaching November and already Atlético without Champions.

And without the duel granting a truce: in the League he cannot lower his guard any more if he does not want to lose the wake of Madrid and Barça even before the break for the World Cup and on Tuesday he travels to Do Dragao to risk his life... to play the Europa League.

The day after missing a penalty with time expired, that the rebound crashed into the crossbar and that the next rebound hit

himself to avoid the goal that would have kept Atlético alive, it remains to remove the fallen leaves and analyze cold reality.

And this speaks of a serious problem: in the last 15 Champions League games, six defeats, five draws and just four wins.

In the current course, three running games without scoring a goal before the sentence against an already eliminated Leverkusen.

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The curse of Qarabag and Simeone's most sincere confession: "The Champions League is difficult for me"

• Drafting: LUCAS SÁEZ-BRAVOMadrid

The curse of Qarabag and Simeone's most sincere confession: "The Champions League is difficult for me"

Since the 2017 season, Atlético has not passed the quarterfinals.

From the same one that moved to the Metropolitan.

But beyond curses, the debate centers around the figure of

, who has been in office for 11 years.

More than a decade, as unrepeatable as it is eroded.

Because the charisma of his overwhelming figure also accelerates wear.

And he raises an inevitable question that runs through the stands of the stadium like a run run: Is the era of Cholo coming to an end?

"I'm going to keep insisting"

When the game ended, the players remained on the lawn of the Metropolitano trying to digest the drama with the fans and lower their heart rate.

But the spotlights rested on Simeone, planted in the middle of the field, hand on his chin.

"Many things were going through my head," he reflected enigmatically afterwards.

Although he soon transformed the anger at elimination into hopeful messages for the future.

The first: «There are two options, victimhood or continue working and I am on the side of continuing to improve».

The second, as a confession: «The Champions League is difficult for me.

But I'm hard-headed, I'm going to keep insisting until I have the chance to be at this club, looking to find something that we lack.

That promise postpones, for the moment, any speculation.

Because for a long time the impression has been flying that Cholo, who has a juicy contract until 2024, could make the decision to leave at the end of this course.

But in the noble zone of the club there is a premise etched in fire for a long time: Simeone will never be fired.

Atlético will now have to move forward between the enormous, successful and unforgettable residue of the recent past and the depression left by the premature goodbye in the Champions League.

Simeone also awakens past nightmares.

With more than a month of the World Cup to ruminate on a failure that "was not in the plans", it is time to smooth things over.

There is a sector of the club, the people closest to the first team, much less in tune with Cholo than the board.

They are the ones who suffer from the wear and tear of the routines of an indomitable personality.

And then there is sports.

The ups and downs with the system, the search for identity and the

case , who will surely live a before and after with the World Cup, without ruling out his momentary or definitive departure from Atlético.

As usual, against Bayer, more in need than ever of genius that would make the third goal possible, the Portuguese got too hot on the wing.

When he came out desperate for

, there were barely three minutes left and the discount.

He applied for the final penalty, which would have served as redemption.

But it was Carrasco who took the step, brave and unlucky.

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