And among all the problems that surround Cholo, a crisis of results and even an identity for his team, now comes the Cup. Atlético is playing the pass to the quarterfinals and Simeone will no longer be able to use his tablecloth, his glasses and his plates, like against Rayo Majadahonda, a sister club, they have shared the Cerro del Espino facilities since 1997, where the rojiblanco team trains, which He asked to play the round of 32 match at the Metropolitano. That is no longer going to happen to Atleti who travel to San Sebastián in the round of 16 to face Imanol’s Real Sociedad. The field of the match will be the Reale Arena, Anoeta, and the statistics do not exactly smile at the Argentine: there he has lost 40% of his matches.
Only at the Bernabéu, against Real Madrid, and the Camp Nou, against Barcelona, has a higher percentage of defeats (in the 19 fields of the rivals that today make up the First Division). 50% in the case of the first and 46% of the second. Anoeta goes after, the third place in the drawer of the podium. Of the five games that the coach has lost against the ‘txuri-urdin’, four were at Anoeta. The last one, in fact, is recorded in the Basque ephemeris: on September 14, 2019, the day that Real presented football with the reform of its field, without athletics track, with the stands up to the grass, did it with victory. Against the rojiblancos. 2-0. With goals from Monreal and Odegaart. Imanol, on the bench.
A Cup without Griezmann
It is also true that, if you look at the glass half full, Cholo’s percentage of victories in San Sebastián is 60% and that 2019 was, precisely, the last one. Last season, in the league, they won 0-2 (goals from Hermoso and Llorente) in the first round. They have met at the Wanda Metropolitano in the first round with a 2-2 draw. But that 40% travels in the suitcase of those of Cholo in a match in which the draw does not work (in fact Real and Simeone’s Atlético have never tied in the txuri-urdin field). Whoever wins will be in quarters. And the Argentine has already shown against Majadahonda, lining up Oblak for example, that he takes this Cup seriously. What can be the joy to be put in your mouth in a season so far with more disappointments than successes (he came from being champion, it was reinforced with the return of Griezmann who, by the way, will not be in his most special match today, he is still in The infirmary).