Espanyol 1-Atlético 2 | The undisputed was Lemar

When the party was still settling, all eyes were chasing Griezmann's movements in this unexpected rentrée, Savic left his head in the booth for the party to tell Cholo that, with or without Grizi, Cornellá is still a stone in the Everest size shoe. It was an easy ball for the center-back, recently appointed fourth captain. But between the “you go for that ball, not that I'm going, follow my finger”, Embarba slipped in and swiped the ball. He finished off crossed and full of gunpowder to Oblak's net. And, when Cornellà was already celebrating the first goal parakeet of this First, a mitten appeared to establish the lament. San Jan does not forget miracles. Griezmann's spotlights were all for him before being asked by another Frenchman who pulverized Everest in the last second of the game.

But that was later, long after this beginning in which Espanyol did not want to be a guest at Erika's husband's party.. I put the house, the people, the stones. The rojiblancos were in control but not the occasions, which belonged to Espanyol, standing up before Cholo like a photo of the old Atleti, the one that took a world to find a hole. And, as much as Simeone had jumped with Carrasco, with Llorente, with Correa, with Suárez and with Griezmann, the chances belonged to Espanyol. On the counter and combinative, superb Darder, in three steps, stood before Oblak with the uuuyyy in the mouth. Melendo a torment. RdT forcing Felipe to serve under sticks. Arriving and arriving at the Malaysian drop. Plim, plim.

And the minutes went by, and what for Atleti was a day with tango music, “come back”, was getting entangled in that war for space, without gunpowder but fierce and devastating. A lot of name, but little man To destabilize, to break between the lines. Griezmann was flying free but two years, three months and 26 days later, the cape was somewhat threadbare. He passed the miles of Teacher and the Cholo, okay, but he walks through a different Atleti, which he still does not know. And he seemed lost, as if he was still at Barça. Simeone's decision to keep in the eleven that footballer who in the absence of Griezmann filled the red and white with gallons (Correa) sacrificed Lemar. And how she was missing him. Terribly.

If when rest appeared, Cholo had already lost the ball, he would also lose the score. Because the pitcher went to the source so much that it ended up bursting Oblak's gloves. If he first drew a fabulous overlooked hand to thwart a Melendo chance, the next, a corner, RdT nodded him to an impossible place. From the first suit to the second. Where San Jan did not arrive, no matter how much it stretched. Simeone went to the booth with a cloud of doubts over his head.

Nothing else to return, three changes. Because in the face of so much doubt, a single certainty: his team was out of balance. Men were left behind, clamorously missing in the center. To the shower Hermoso, Correa and Trippier. To the green Kondogbia, Lemar and Lodi. The right back for Llorente, Kondogbia pivot and Koke and Lemar inside. It's what the champion has, a lot of resources and faces, and he grew from pressure after loss. With Llorente deepening, Lemar threatening. He had been on the field for five minutes and had already shaved Diego López's goalpost. At seven he had pierced her, although it was not worth, VAR by. Hernández Hernández called Munuera's earpiece to tell him that in that play in which Llorente assists Lemar, Suárez almost arrived before, he did not touch her, but there he is. For the referees, offside. The 1-0 returned to the scoreboard. The champion is looked at with a magnifying glass.

And that disallowed goal weighed. It was difficult for him to be deep, to arrive before that Espanyol refreshed in the changes (Calero and Melendo withdrew with discomfort and Recasens debuted, 19 years old). Until Carrasco got rid of him, all the weight, with that play: first he fought the ball, five could not take the ball from him, then he invented a great goal between so many legs. 1-1. João Félix, by the way, was already on the field and his sparks were electricity. One almost got on the scoreboard. Because he leaked a pass to the Lodi incursion that crossed back, to the center of the area, where no one was and no one finished. Incomprehensibly, the referee would give him 10 extra minutes to the game. Ten minutes that Vicente Moreno made very long, like the referee, it seems, the changes in the second half and the controversy of VAR. Ten minutes in which Atlético caressed the goal in Carrasco's boot, in João's internships, to the left of Lodi to find him in the 99th minute, the 'deadline' as the announcement of Griezmann's return, to the right of a friend: Thomas Lemar. It is not his good leg, but in this Lemar there is nothing bad anymore.