Anfield's hero stays

TO Marcos Llorente (25 years) still get goosebumps in those 30 minutes. Those from Anfield's overtime. He revealed it himself, in an interview in The spar Thursday. “I've seen the game a few times these months. Whole, a couple. The extension, three or four. At home I had all the time in the world, every time I watch it it gives me goose bumps,” he said, still with the excited voice. A party that has changed its status in the rojiblanca squad.

Why Marcos Llorente It has become indisputable for Cholo. All the eleven tests say it for the match against Athletic (Sunday, June 14, 2:00 p.m.). There are players going in and out. Arias for example in the last one, which came in Trippier. Coast If with Lemar or belt before he was injured. Morata not until yesterday, with Carrasco, but something always remains: the middle line. And this is formed by the indisputable Cholo. Captain Koke, the multipurpose Saul, the totemic Thomas, the Holy Trinity of Cholo. And a fourth: the hero of Anfield. Marcos Llorente (in the box, the eleven of the last test of Simeone, the one that he developed in yesterday's training). “It is wonderful to play with Koke, Saúl, Thomas … With the ball there are many with quality, but the work they have without the ball is not done by many,” praised the rojiblanco at SER.

Outstanding once again for his physique at the start of the particular preseason that the teams have faced due to the COVID-19 crisis, such as when he arrived at Atlético last summer and stood out in the course-navette endurance test, He also revealed his emotions at these three months of absence from football. “It has been very long, we have never been so long without touching the ball. It has cost us, when you return to training discomfort appears everywhere,” he acknowledged, as the voices that will now be heard, in the restart, from every corner of the fields without people (“as empty seats …), without public.” It will be a very strange feeling. Soccer is the people, the hobby. You will lose your magic. You have to adapt as soon as possible and look on the bright side. We will hear more. Let it pass quickly and they can return as soon as possible, “he argued. Of course,” someone will have to cut, “he joked.

He at Atlético was not cut. And that to the second most expensive signing of Atlético last summer, the 40 million that cost only behind the 127 of João Félix It was very difficult for him to enter, to make a hole for himself. In January he had played only 320 minutes, crumbs (“But I did not contemplate going out in the winter market. I let my uncle know that I did not want to go out. I wanted to hold out, I was confident that one day the opportunity would come and I would take it,” he confessed in El Larguero), I ran more in training. There was no other. Work and work. “As much as things do not turn out, I do not stop working and was prepared for the opportunity. With the passage of time you get to know the mister. I feel very comfortable and very comfortable wherever I put myself,” he said.

So, injuries. Herrera, had made a hole, fell. João Félix too. It was the end of January. From there to the forced stop Atlético played ten games between Liga (7), Copa del Rey (1), Spanish Super Cup (2) and Champions (2) and Llorente only missed one, before him Spanish, On March 1. In the rest, he was in all, his participation had tripled, 666 'played in that period, five games (Madrid, Granada, Valencia, Seville and Cultural Leonesa) and 64 minutes to history, which he played at Anfield.

“In the end we all really enjoyed that night.” Especially him, with those two goals that gave him the comeback and the pass to Atlético. A look forward of a footballer looked at by his past (Madrid). “We all have one, it cannot be changed. As I always say, when you do things well that does not matter. Atleti has respected me a lot. I have felt comfortable from the beginning with the team and the fans,” he said before referring to a goodbye, the Burgos jumpsuit. “He is a happy and funny guy. His decision is understandable and respectable, we wish him the best. He wants to achieve something great this season.” Something like him with that opportunity he was talking about to his uncle. Anfield's name was.