“We are in a moment of resistance”, defined the coach of the
Atlético de Madrid
, the Argentinian
Diego Pablo Simeone
, after this Sunday's draw against the Betis (1-1) with which he maintains the lead by only one point over the Real Madrid and two about him Barcelona, six weeks before the end of the league.
“I like that word, resist. As it happens to us in society at this time, a hard, difficult moment, we have to resist, and there we are, resisting ”, he added Simeone after the duel in the Benito Villamarin in which he soon went ahead with a goal from the Belgian Yannick Carrasco after 5 minutes, but could not counteract the tie of Christian tello, living under the retreat for a good part of the game, but with options to win in the end with the two final options that Argentine forward Ángel Correa had to score.
Resistir is the verb that Atlético will have to conjugate the most during the next six weeks, which remain until the weekend of May 22 and 23, when the last day of the championship will be played. Eight days in a context of patent difficulty in the rojiblanco game and in the injuries that gripped the leader.
So obvious is the former – that the Athletic has lost that solidity in his football that allowed him to chain eight consecutive league victories to add only 17 of the last 33 points in play – as impossible to avoid the second, a streak of injuries that left him without center forwards in the Villamarin and threatens three other key players: the French midfielder Thomas lemar, the Portuguese striker Joao
Felix and the english side Kieran trippier.
The French midfielder, in clear improvement since Simeone he found his hole more centered instead of glued to a band, he fell from yesterday's crash due to some discomfort in the thigh inherited from Saturday's training; the Portuguese striker took a blow just before the break in the right ankle in an action with the Betic defender Aissa mandi for which he had to be replaced shortly after starting the second half; and the lateral requested the change by some lumbar discomfort after a blow.
PLAYERS TO RECOVER
In all three cases – that the Athletic will try to recover in the week ahead until Sunday, when he will receive the Eibar in the Metropolitan Wanda– The Uruguayan striker is removed Lewis
Suarez, who could be absent two or three more games due to his muscular injury, and that of the other 'nine' of the team, the French Moussa Dembélé, under medical supervision since three weeks ago he suffered a faint training due to a drop in blood pressure.
Many difficulties outside the game, which do not hide that the Athletic suffers from an obvious football deficit. In the Villamarin He was only the protagonist in the minutes that preceded the goal of Carrasco, obtained in a good combination between Carrasco, Joao, Correa and again the Belgian, and from there he was at the mercy of the Betis, except for a header from Saul and the final two occasions of strap.