Álvaro Morata (27 years old) has established itself as the great offensive reference for Atlético this season. The striker from Madrid is the top scorer of Simeone with 12 targets in 33 domestic championship matches and 16 in 42 matches between all competitions. It is especially remarkable his performance in LaLiga's return after the halt due to the pandemic. In the 10 duels held so far, the tip has scored four goals.
You still have one encounter to conclude his participation in the tournament regularly and the rival (the Real Sociedad) is conducive to increasing his account if we stick to previous experience. And is that Morata has scored four goals for the txuri-urdines in the five encounters in which it has been measured with the Basques.
The first time that the Atlético forward faced each other with the Blue and Whites was in the 2013-14 season and wore the shirt of the eternal rival, Real Madrid. In that course, meringues and people from San Sebastian faced each other on matchdays 13 and 32 (at that time the league calendar was symmetrical, unlike now) with respective victories by the capitals by 5-1 and 0-4, respectively. Morata participated in both meetings. In the first leg, played at the Santiago Bernabéu, he played the last eight minutes and failed to score. He was luckier in the Madrid visit to Anoeta, since, despite participating only four minutes, was able to score in the 88 ’pass by Di María.
The following year, still under white discipline, he also participated in the two meetings between his team and the royalists. Both clubs began their journey in LaLiga seeing the faces in the Gipuzkoan feud with a 0-3 victory for Real Madrid. Morata played 77 minutes, but he was not able to pierce the Basque goal. In the duel of the second round (matchday 20), the Madrid striker jumped onto the pitch 24 minutes and this time he did see the door. Specifically in 82 ’after receiving an assistance from Lucas Vázquez, marking the third and final goal of Madrid's victory (3-0).
He had to wait four seasons, already under the orders of Cholo at Atlético, to return to face those of San Sebastián. It was on day 26 of last season in the second round match in which the rojiblancos visited Anoeta (Morata joined the winter market from Chelsea, so he was not present in the match on the tenth day). In the Guipúzcoa game the mattress tip played 71 minutes and scored both goals in the athletic victory (0-2), in the 30 ’and in the 33’, by Godín and Koke, respectively.
Morata will arrive wanting to maintain his positive trend against the Blue and Whites (almost one goal per duel) and, even more, after missing the first round match due to injury held in the realistic stadium (day 4) and in which the locals took the three points after winning 2-0. We will see if the striker equals or even improves his scoring average against Real Sociedad in the match that will measure them tomorrow Sunday at 9:00 p.m. at the Wanda Metropolitano.