LaLiga has left Atleti when he has looked down. 17 points have gone against the last teams in the table: Alavés, Granada, Levante and Mallorca. Against the first there were three, against the second another three (although the match of the second round is still to be held, on April 20), four vanished against Levante, which marked a before and after, the turning point, the start of LaLiga 14, the one that started against Osasuna, after the defeat against Levante, at that time bottom. He then did it after 90 ‘without shots on goal (the only one was one by Correa that he did not score: he was offside). An image, erratic and worrying, unknown in Simeone’s ten years on the rojiblanco benchconditioning even the primary objective: to qualify among the top four, to qualify for the next Champions League.
A League, that of 14, that the rojiblancos went through impeccably, counting their games only with victories, six of six. Osasuna, Celta, Betis, Cádiz, Rayo Vallecano, Alavés. Until he again ran into his second relegation team on this list. If he beat Alavés, he only let him scratch the three points in the first round, against Mallorca he was not capable. First Luis García Plaza, in the duel at the Wanda Metropolitano, now Javier Aguirre, exrojiblanco, from 2006 to 2009, who was inspired by the duel of the rojiblancos against Manchester, last Tuesday. Theirs was not two walls of five men and five, but an exercise in containing more than proposing.
Aguirre, another stone to the ankle
And it came out. For the office of his own team and for the ineffectiveness of the rival. Because when Atlético wanted to find out about the game, seventy minutes had passed and they were losing 1-0. How is another story. The struggle for a ball, a stomp due to inertia, a penalty whistle that the VAR did not call to correct or, at least, verify on the screen. Atleti drowned in Mallorca with that stone at their feet, their matches against the last of LaLiga. His other three losses, however, came against the top three: at Madrid (with whom he still has to play in this second round of LaLiga, the weekend of May 8), Sevilla (the same, second round match the following week, on May 15) and that of Barça (who, however, won at the Metropolitano in the first round).
The rojiblancos lost the League against those below. Now, Betis, one point away in what is their League, the 14 and the general: qualify for the next Champions. Next weekend, Espanyol. After the challenge in capital letters: show that the first leg of the quarterfinal against City in Manchester, that 5-5-0, has an explanation.