Levante – Atlético | Llorente, what planet did you come from

The game started with a tachycardia and on Llorente's legs. Of course not. Simeone put him in the laboratory in winter and what has sprouted in spring-summer is an unstoppable footballer. Under the forward suit, striding, as if La Nucía was the Madrid Fashion Week on the first ball of the match, second 26, he stood in front of Aitor. He tunneled Levante on the left and each ball had an order: look for him. He replied. In each of them the bottom line won.

With the ambition to go back to sleep third and start weaving a mattress with Sevilla in the Champions League positions, Atlético came out with seven changes, without João or Giménez, and forgetting all the bad vices that seem to have stayed in the old normal, beyond the day that changed everything, the day of Llorente in Anfield. To take the game from the front and go for it, very vertical, strangling the spaces to Levante and carrying the weight of the game and the ball. Inside, out, with that footballer whose move up has changed everything.

Minute 15. Everything started from a foul that Koke stamped on an opponent and ended in Arias. The Colombian looked up but did not have to think too much about who to look for. Llorente. For tomorrow that control remains, of extreme plasticity. Oriented, on his back, turning between Toño and Bardhi to look for Costa with a death pass that Bruno ended up introducing in his own goal while everyone looked for Llorente with exclamations in their mouths. And to Cholo. Another medal to pin on his jacket. Like the one Griezmann said, the one Lucas said.

After the goal, Levante tried to temper the match, but Atlético had only stepped back to catch their breath. A robbery was the signal to stampede towards Aitor, ten men at a gallop led by Llorente and Costa in their best version, the one that Bestiaaa shouts. One of the first best parts of the season. With efficient pressure, rhythm, intensity and perfect soccer machinery. Thomas and Saúl were the foundations of the plays, Koke and Carrasco filled the interior corridors and Lodi and Arias attacked from the outside while Costa and Llorente sharpened their boots. From the Levante in the first 45 minutes only one news: a steamroller passed over him.

The house game returned as if Atlético had not rested: same intensity and Thomas unsheathing his leg. But Carrasco had released the ball late, when Costa was already offside. Thomashawk canceled. Toño and Vezo were still in trouble, Vukcevic and Radoja outnumbered, Roger blinded, only Toño seemed to try to harm the red and white defense with his climbs on the left. And those of Coke, by the right, with joy.

Minute 60. The game was another. Simeone agitated his team and Paco López also. Three changes per team. If Levante con Campaña and Toño's climbs equaled the duel, João Félix entered with the flashlight on. First ball, occasion. Second, ball to the crossbar. Then it went out. While, in the opposite area, Bardhi shot and Giménez snatched the ball from Sergio León with a push to the limit that neither referee nor VAR punished with a penalty. Right after, he gave way to a fresh Mayoral who had a tie on his head. Caño de un Toño tireless to Arias and inside measured to his header that was caressing the post. The game was overturned towards Oblak. The changes had taken away his command. It was time to show his other version: that of clenching his teeth and mutating in pediment. Third victory in a row, I layer on the podium and that question: Marcos, what planet did you come from?