Atlético does not want to leave their ‘Champions’ duties halfway
The rojiblancos, one victory away from certifying their participation in the next Champions League, visit a virtually saved Elche
MADRID, 10 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid visits Elche this Wednesday (9:30 p.m.) on matchday 36 of LaLiga Santander with the aim of winning to secure a place in the next ‘Champions’ and not leave their European duties halfway, while the people from Elche, with a cushion of seven points on the descent, they want to finish sealing a now virtual salvation.
Diego Pablo Simeone’s team lives, finally, in a state of tranquility and happiness after beating Real Madrid (1-0) for the first time at the Wanda Metropolitano, achieving three points that bring them much closer to the priority objective after an irregular season: entering the Champions League places for the tenth consecutive year.
The rojiblancos are fourth with 64 points, one less than Sevilla and six above Real Betis, the main rival for that fourth place and the one who has the ‘goal-average’ won with three games to go, so except for catastrophe, the colchoneros only need to initial the task and put their name to that fourth place. Although the first opponent they will have to beat is the rojiblanco team itself and its irregularity, chaining two league defeats away from home, although they face an Elche team that they have won in their last nine matches.
It seems that the Argentine coach, who returned to the scheme of four defenders against Real Madrid, has found the key for this crucial final stretch of the season. Last Sunday you could see a much improved version of Atlético, with a lot of commitment and solidarity, at times with a good combination game, although very ‘fallón’ in the final meters, where he lacked clarity in front of goal.
Despite having it practically done, Atlético will have to forget ghosts from the past and doubts because, in a certain way, they arrive at Martínez Valero with no margin for error, since a puncture would once again attract the bad omens that have surrounded the team throughout the course, more so when he will close the season receiving Sevilla at the Metropolitano and traveling to the Reale Arena on the last day.
But the rojiblancos have been able to respond to Simeone’s call for a ’14-game league’, adding up to 10 points more than Sevilla, Betis and Real, direct rivals for their goal ‘Champions’. Since the debacle against Levante in February, the team has added 25 points out of a possible 33, a necessary comeback in the table at all levels.
Simeone could repeat the 4-4-2 he used against Real Madrid, with Llorente down through suspension, and Joao Félix and Lemar through injury. We will have to wait to find out if the Argentine opts for Correa or a midfielder to occupy the right side, while Luis Suárez awaits his turn, with a Carrasco in stellar mode.
ONE STEP AWAY FROM THE GOAL
Despite the setback and the win (3-0) at the Nuevo Mirandilla against a more needy Cádiz, Elche is one step away from the goal of permanence. The wins against Mallorca (3-0) and Betis (0-1), and the draw (1-1) against Osasuna, have placed Francisco’s team very close to signing the job.
However, the coach of the franjiverdes warned that the “objective has not been achieved” and focuses on a victory that would round off his work on a bench to which he arrived with the difficult mission of filling the gap of Fran Escribá and continue a year more in the national elite.
To achieve this, Elche will only have the loss due to injury to the central defender Gonzalo Verdú and the striker Ezequiel Ponce due to the expulsion in Cádiz, while they recover the Colombian side Johan Mojica and the Uruguayan Lucas Olaza in defense, and could also count on the Argentine striker Lucas Boyé after several days absent.
However, it seems premature that Boyé could integrate the starting eleven of an Elche that trusts, Francisco pointed out, “in its weapons” -order, defense, Badía’s saves and the verticality of Mojica and Fidel-, to surprise a Atlético who defeated him (1-0) in the first round with a solitary goal by Correa in a poor start by Casilla. The loot would be a permanence, two days before the end of the championship, which a few months ago seemed utopian.
DATASHEET.
–POSSIBLE ALIGNMENTS.
ELCHE: Bay; Palacios, Enzo Roco, Diego González, Pedro Bigas, Mojica; Gumbau, Mascarell, Fidel, Pere Milla; and Guido Carrillo.
ATLETICO DE MADRID: Oblak; Vrsaljko, Savic, Gimenez, Lodi; Correa, Kondogbia, Koke, Carrasco; Griezmann and Cunha.
–REFEREE: González Fuertes (C.Asturiano).
–STADIUM: Manuel Martinez Valero.
–TIME: 9:30 p.m./Movistar LaLiga.