Atltico – Granada: The mystery of Saponjic | LaLiga Santander 2019

The spiky Serbian Fich tip in summer from Benfica, in exchange for half a million euros and has only played 62 minutes.

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  So is the classification
  

A few days after the start of the month of July, a lanky (1.92 meter) and stocky boy appeared on the hill of Cerro del Espino. It was Ivan Saponjic (Nova Varos, 1997), a Serbian forward eared that some of his new teammates already know. It was the case of Jan Oblak, represented as l by Miha Mlakar. Or that of Joao Flix, with which I agreed in Lisbon, trying to gain a foothold in Benfica. Therefore, seven months after his signing and just over an hour of play (62 minutes), an attempt has been made to establish an unreal link between his arrival and the renovation of the goalkeeper or the millionaire operation for crack portugus.

They offered it for its low profile and it was a good opportunity because it had little economic impact for the team. But Simeone It has never filled him, they slide from the red-and-white entity, remembering the details of that operation that was only half a million euros. His low salary, the smallest of the first team, was also decisive for the Atletico to finish executing the movement. Saponjic had been the U20 World Champion with Serbia (2015) under the direction of the former Atlantic Veljko Paunovic, who also raised his thumb when asked. During his time at Benfica B (scored 14 goals in 64 games), he agreed with the Madrid player Jovic, which ended up climbing to the first team and left for Germany while he was stuck.

“Never lower your arms”

Despite the injuries of Diego Costa Y lvaro Morata, the presence of Saponjic before Granada is not certain. Simeone has tried it during the week but … He has suffered a lot these months, but he is a trainee and never lowers his arms, say those who deal with him. So far, he has only enjoyed an hour in front of the Leonesa Cultural, in the round of 16, where he had a couple of occasions to have changed the fate of his team, and two almost invisible minutes, at the close of the duel against the Legans Everything, in the last days of the month of January. Subsidiary guys like Camel, Poveda (seriously injured), Riquelme or Gracious They have been overtaking him, but he has never put on a bad face.

The fact is that what seemed like a market opportunity in summer, today is the only healthy center forward left in the Atlantic, with Costa finalizing his recovery and Morata, with a muscle injury. He knows what he has to do to get closer to what the team needs, he has been holding Simeone repeatedly every time he is asked about him. Its future, already dark, would have been even blacker if the signing of the Uruguayan Edinson had been completed Cavani.

The solutions in attack will be found on the basis of searching, said the Cholo yesterday, thinking about what can be the best scoring formula to end that third streak of three matches in LaLiga without winning and, above all, without seeing the door.