Champion's luck point

Emery arrived at the Metropolitan with a suit, also black, as if something could stick that way, that there were already 14 duels without victory against the man on the next bench, Cholo. A Cholo who tried to look straight ahead, in a match that he grabbed, that he had, that was his, but he vanished in a bizarre, unsuspected way, while, at midnight, a shot was heard in the foot. A Cholo who, if he won, went to the break as a solo leader, who returned to play before his people, again, how does he feel, 27,000 people screaming from champions, champions, filling this long game of chess with his voice.

Emery's initial plan was soon unraveled amid the turnovers. Gerard Moreno was so lonely that, more than fear, they made him want to hug him. In front, Atlético filled every blade of grass with energy. Choking, drowning, eating Emery's pieces in every ball. Estupiñán and Foyth were soon overcome by the reunion of that blessed couple, Llorente-Trippier. Villarreal only felt like the game passed over him like the game of Jumanji. The Oblak area was uncharted terrain, the new world, far, far away. Carrasco burned from so much electricity in the boot, Correa threw Atlético on his back in that chaos that he has turned into excellence, Lemar was the Lemar of the I click and appear by your side, irrepressible, very fast. If the rojiblancos did not stop showing up in the Rulli area, in a constant knock at the door, the French almost knocked it down midway through the first half.

He finished off first, with the outside, a center behind Trippier. The ball flew like an exhalation towards the goal of a Rulli who served with the tip of the glove, after the ball crashed into the post and shook the concrete of the stadium. The answer was Villarreal's first time in that hitherto unknown world: the Oblak area. Yeremy stole a ball and tied a loop to send it to Gerard, who was asking for it in the area. But he did not control well, the ball escaped grotesquely, the play ended in a woe when everything pointed to the uy. The next woe almost left Cholo with ten.

Correa went to the dispute of a ball with the studs in front that left a bite on Albiol's ankle, which was sore on the ground. Yellow. But because Soto Grado did not receive the call in his ear. If you go to the screen and see it, it would have been red and in the shower. Emery managed to slow down the game, constricting the space inside, blocking the feet of those men who were running like 300. Llorente, Trippier, Carrasco, Correa, Koke, Lemar, tireless, pounding the grass with a drum roll. If Atlético did not reach the break ahead on the scoreboard, it was because they often sinned in solidarity. Correa yielding to Carrasco when he had to sting on the goalkeeper, Suárez looking for walls when he had to shoot first … Or because Trippier, above all that, headed out, after touching Mandi, that ball that Lemar put him with the air of a goal when he arrivedFinally, really, the break, six minutes after 45 '.

The second part came back as if the first was not over. With the goal lingering in Rulli's area, corner by corner. So the unexpected. Yeremy steals a ball that ends up in the back of the net from Oblak after a shoe from Trigueros. Emery nearly broke the armhole of his suit in celebration. But it did not last long. Because Suárez had not been seen too much but there he was, for the first time as a starter. And Estupiñán erred in a throw-in and took advantage Strap to give him back and smile as he fired the Uruguayan boot. Bang, first, 1-1. The chess game again with the score in tables.

But everything had evened out, the game, the energy, the midfield. And, while, Suárez left with discomfort, Savic and Giménez made a mess and Yeremy, again Yeremy, left the ball clean for Danjuma, who sent Oblak back to the canvas with a left foot. Atleti turned on Rulli with more heart than legs. With Saúl, with De Paul, Cunha and that word, Checkmate, Above his head. Then, the inexplicable: ten seconds from the end, Mandi hands Rulli a header ball that slips and Villarreal watches, with horror, as the ball enters his goal. 2-2. Mandi cries, Emery almost rips off his suit. Boards. One point, for them, defeat. For the champion, miracle, hoot, boards.