Orfeo Suarez Madrid
Madrid
Updated Sunday, February 4, 2024-23:36
The leader plays with others and with their sufficiency. He is in his right and is not doing badly at all, but the reality is that he has an
Achilles heel
. So many have fallen in his defense that no matter how much he indulges in a masked ball and puts
Rüdiger
on
Carvajal
, he does not always carry out the deception, even though we are already in the carnival. The Bernabéu is not a Venetian hall. Atlético is the one that has made the best use of that deficit this season, in the League or the Cup, although in the last derby of the season they had to wait for the minute that brings back the worst memories. This 93 was red and white to start a tie that does not change hierarchies, but maintains the suspense of the League.
Two situations raised questions, and both in the areas. Carvajal appeared as a central defender, given that not even the iron man, Rüdiger, is immune to everything. Tough and quick in anticipation, characteristics that are needed in the position, Carvajal measures 1.73, not enough when you have to act as an anti-aircraft man. For
Lunin
the dilemma was over. He had to leave despite the risks. He did it with a saving hand against a
Witsel
shot
. It is not strange that, except in the first approach forged by the
Griezmann&Morata
company , most of the danger in the local area fell from the sky. Also the shot that would have meant the tie, by
Savic
, had it not been due to the positional offside interpreted by the referee, as
Saúl
had his back to Lunin and made it difficult, according to his criteria, for the goalkeeper. Another scene for the League's referee 'thriller', to which would be added knockdowns of
Lucas Vázquez
or
Bellingham
in the visiting area. Finally, when no one imagined it, it was
Marcos Llorente
. Like
Paris
's unexpected arrow
in the Achaean warrior's heel.
Brahim by Vinicius
Vinicius did not appear in the opposing area, who retired in the warm-up due to cervical discomfort, but remained on the bench. Ancelotti had
Joselu
hot after Getafe, but the one chosen was
Brahim
. Piece by piece, he was the one who most respected the idea with which he had proposed the game. That is, with no one fixed in the area, where the three centre-backs that Simeone started with looked at each other without really knowing who to chase. He got the Italian right, because the empanada in the red and white area was three stories: tuna, meat and scallops. It's a bad thing for any team; The sin is if that team is directed by a certain
Simeone
.
Madrid's goal brought confusion to the comic strip in a succession of errors by the Atlético players that enabled
Lucas Vázquez
, first, and then Brahim, directly to the goal between caroms. Bad
Riquelme
and bad
Koke
. The first, with attacking intentions but imprecise in the retreat, had a hard time staying in the dugout at half-time.
Witsel, Savic and
Hermoso
lacked references, something that ends up becoming a torment for most center backs. The mobility of the attacking men in Madrid complicated it, with the band changes of Brahim and
Rodrygo
, the perpendicular evolutions of
Bellingham
, plus the depth of Lucas Vázquez, a guy who every time he advances returns to his past as a winger. . In Getafe and in the derby he has shown the reason for his permanence in a team like Madrid.
An electric footballer
Brahim didn't just score. He is a footballer who changes the team's electrical current when the ball reaches him. He does things that lift the respectable, like the action with which he was able to extend the score in a big way, bullfighter in the area, just before leaving to applause. While the
Mbappé
soap opera is updated
, Brahim plays every meter like a fight in a trench.
However, Madrid did not need punctures, which started determinedly, with intensity, the ball and territorial control on its part. Atlético, on the other hand, did not seem to put in as much as it did in the previous derbies of the season, whether in the ones won in the League and Cup, in the Metropolitano, or in the one lost in the Super Cup semi-final, in Riyadh. The Cup being played this week is a title that is closer than any other, without Madrid or Barça in the way, and that could have weighed on the unconscious of the coach and the players themselves.
Simeone seemed to like a long game, because an opportunity always comes. Savic's non-goal, however, forced him to shake the bench and showed him the way to get something with less effort than in any other derby. He got it right.