Cárdenas stopped Atlético – AS.com

Atlético fell in the Wanda Metropolitano against Levante in a game where he started very weak and where he ended up putting his rival in his area. If in the match played in the Ciutat de Valencia he had many occasions, in this one he had endless arrivals to the rival area. But he did not take advantage of them and paid for it. Simeone's team loses its second league match and ends a black week. In the two games against Levante he has taken a point. Morales and De Frutos made the many visitors. Atlético shot eleven times on goal. Levante shot two and the three points flew out of the rojiblanco stadium. The Levante goalkeeper, Cárdenas, stopped the leader of the classification. The leader did not deserve so much punishment.

When Morales headed only towards Oblak, the rojiblancos threw their hands to their heads. It was the seventh minute and Rochina put a golden ball to the 'commander', whose control was prodigious. Less good was the culmination of the play, whose shot went out by a hair. The play made it clear what the first half was, with a Granota team much more involved in the game and awake than Atlético. The visiting team changed many players with respect to the first leg and had the loss in the warm-up of Postigo. Atlético put up an offensive eleven, with Luis Suárez, Correa and João Félix together.

Atlético never felt comfortable on the field, surpassed by a well-planted opponent, triangulating well, always with a player capable of receiving and playing. The rojiblanco team was the opposite, with Kondogbia no place, Koke looking for him and with Llorente with much less participation than in Wednesday's clash. Morales scored in an action in which Kondogbia fell asleep on the edge of the area. Instead of clearing, he wanted to play the ball, which reached the Levante footballer and ended up in the net after touching a pair of rojiblancos. Levante deserved it. Atlético, as has been dangerously happening in many of their last games, had to go against the scoreboard again. It came a little higher, but there are some players who are not well. João Félix is ​​one of them and could not take advantage of a long ball from Kondogbia when he lined up in front of Cárdenas.

Atlético tried on the right with Llorente and Correa, on the left with Lodi and João Félix, through the center triangulating with Suárez … But they didn't find the goal. He was able to arrive in a wash from Marcos Llorente and later with a distant shot from Hermoso.

The second half, how could it be otherwise, brought a very different dynamic, with a Levante more locked in its plot and an Atlético determined in search of goals. The crash barely had time to pause, with a Madrid team bottling their rival. In three minutes, from 57 to 60, Atlético had a triple chance. First with an exceptionally free foul by Luis Suárez and that crashed off the post; later with two castings on the right. The first was not finished by João Félix and in the second the visiting goalkeeper kicked it out. Simeone had to move pieces due to Giménez's injury, a new mishap for the Uruguayan. Lemar came out. The meeting was already a harassment and demolition of the Levante goal. Llorente on one side, Lodi on the other, João Félix already as second striker helping Luis Suárez. The chances kept coming and Atlético's Portuguese had no luck before the goal. First he finished off. Then to the goalkeeper's hands.

In the absence of a little more than a quarter of an hour, Dembélé made his debut, summoned at the last minute after testing negative in PCR tests. The Frenchman took the lead alongside Suárez, now with João Félix behind. Lemar tried. Out of. The rojiblancos players were despairing before so many failed opportunities. The last was Lemar, but Cárdenas stopped. And the sad end for the leader came with the second goal from Levante, with Oblak desperate as one more in the rojiblanco attack.