• Classification Atlético, fourth classified

  • Copa del Rey The Madrid derby, star crossover of the quarterfinals

Atlético needed to be happy.

A game where you can let your hair down and dance to the tune set by

Antoine Griezmann

.

The Frenchman has earned this season with interest the forgiveness of the rojiblanca fans, converted as he is the best link with what he lacks the most, the goal.

Much has been written about how different it is when he wears blue, but in his way, also striped, he is wit, rhythm and arrival.

Three facets that against Valladolid meant three goals and a quiet night in a wonderful 10-minute trance.

[Narration and Stats (3-0)]



The hunger and the desire to eat were united.

A team, Atlético, that lost the goal map a long time ago;

with another, Valladolid, for whom the drought is one more in a long list of problems - there are five games without scoring, and five consecutive defeats.

It is symptomatic of how much Griezmann offers, and how much it afflicts the white and purple team, that the Frenchman broke the defense of five with a shot from the heel past the front.

A burst of temper and a manifest weakness.



The first quarter of an hour had barely passed and Atleti ruled calmly, with a firm hand but without anger.

Still feeling the rival.

Until Griezmann turned an inside pass from Koke

into an assist into space for

Morata

with a subtle heel strike.

, which he defined within the area with the integrity that the team had lacked in recent weeks.

The Madrid striker sat down

El Yamiq

with a cut to the inside and, now alone against

Masip

, he finished low at the near post.

Llorente's injury

If other times Atlético had taken a step back with that first advantage, this time they did not step on the brake, either because they needed to stimulate themselves or because the facilities that Valladolid offered invited them to continue looking ahead.

And he was still licking his lips from a bad shot by

Correa

in a tiny counter, when the second was born from the partnership that

Nahuel Molina

and

Marcos Llorente

are spinning on the right side.

With almost the same part of the boot with which he had given the pass to Morata, Griezmann finished off a good cross from under the Argentine on the edge of the small area.



Precisely the only bad news that left the night for Atlético was the injury to Llorente, who had to retire shortly after the start of the second half due to a muscle problem.

Just when he was on the ascendant trajectory and with him, that couple on a side in which the fuse has not been re-ignited since the departure of

Trippier

.



By then, Atleti already had the game resolved, because three minutes after making the second Griezmann served

Hermoso

a half-third from a lateral free kick.

Masip took the first header with a parry of pure reflexes, but not the second, already on the ground and with his central ball beaten in rebound by the rojiblanco.

More than 500 minutes without scoring

Simeone

said

, with the hot frustration of the draw in Almería, that Atlético was waiting for the goal.

That he saw it closer and it was already something, seen what was seen against Barça, but the accurate shot was missing.

The goal.

More than a dozen times he mentioned that word at a press conference.

And in 10 minutes of inspiration it rained down three goals that are worth three points and above all a trusty car ahead of next Thursday's derby in the Copa del Rey.



Also a quiet night, because if little had been known about Valladolid until then, little was known with the game buried.

Some good intention that did not come to fruition, because the problem of the

Pacheta group

it goes beyond the attack (it's already more than 500 minutes without scoring).

A fragile team, without rhythm and without edge, and that depending on the rest of the day could end up in relegation places.



For Atlético, a comfortable victory, an opportunity to rest Griezmann, who took advantage of Llorente's change, and to

introduce Memphis Depay

, the patch for this winter market for what Simeone repeated so much at a press conference.

The goal.

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  • football

  • Atletico Madrid

  • Real Valladolid CF

  • Antoine Griezmann

  • alvaro morata

  • Diego Simeone

  • Marcos Llorente