João, al rescate – AS.com

It was 12:30, Atlético’s training session had ended yesterday. But not. The rojiblancos footballers were concentrated around Simeone, who was speaking. This afternoon they play that duel postponed in October for the games of the CONMEBOL players. A duel that comes at its worst. Not of the season, yes, if not of the coach’s ten years on his bench (follow the game live on As.com).

Because never, in the 4,017 days he has been on him, has he experienced three consecutive defeats in the League. Never. And yet now he looks at the path of his team and he sees that. Three defeats. Mallorca, Madrid and Seville. And today he travels to Granada. A Granada that fell in the Cup against Mancha Real, a Second RFEF, but rose against Mallorca, 4-1, with a hat-trick for history: Jorge Molina, with 39 years and 241 days, surpassing the one that Joaquín did with 38 years and 140 days. Robert Moreno has set the course back. It started badly. Without winning until the 8th day, with three points in seven games, but he has been without defeat for four, equaling his best streak this season, breathing. Of the greats, only Madrid beat him. He tied with Barça at the Camp Nou and with Sevilla at Los Cármenes.

Simeone travels alert and warned. It does not recover footballers, it continues without It bites, without Llorente and with his hole behind, without the fundamental Savic, without Giménez, that a contracture has never been so long. A defense that will not change: Trippier in his place and Kondogbia third central. De Paul would return to the medium. João at eleven. Because it will be intermittent, sometimes only flashes, but he is their highest quality footballer and he entrusts his boots to turn on the flashlight in the first parts, in the dark. At his side, it seems, Suárez, who swears in Aramaic if they change him but has five games in the dry league. As much as Oblak’s gloves were wet. His miracles, of the past. Now every two shots he receives, one is a goal.

The casualties of Robert Moreno

The Granada does not throw too much. And it comes with absences. Montoro and Rochina (injuries), Gonalons and Quini (penalties). Robert doubts between Víctor Díaz and Torrente for the center of the rear, Eteki, Monchu and Isma Ruiz opt for the Frenchman’s position, Arias will play against his exes. The rest, those who beat Mallorca, seeking to match the feat of thoseTo the chagrin that this man spoke yesterday to his footballers at Cerro, with ambition to say goodbye to the year. If he loses, he will spend Christmas outside the Champions League.