Liverpool – Atlético | This is the Atleti

This is Anfield.

Before feeling it, Atlético read it. This is Anfield. A threat written in capital letters. Anfield, that deafening scream in a Europe silenced by the coronavirus. The You'll never walk alone he howled, a threat of war. The kop with Klopp as conductor. He had three weeks with these 90 'tie in the lead. But as soon as the game began, João took the ball and, with the spark that distinguishes the genius, leaked it to Costa, which sent him outside, a foot from the stick. His presence at eleven was Cholo's surprise. Costa and not Morata. De Bestia only had this move. Betting on Costa today is shooting yourself in the foot, playing with one less.

Atlético left ordered but with a problem: Thomas losses, Liverpool chances. Klopp had imagined the match as if it had been shot by Sam Mendes, a sequence shot of an endless war in the gusty rain. As if Bill Shankly himself had whispered in his ear: “Just go outside and fill the place with grenades”. His surprise at eleven was Oxlade-Chamberlain by Fabinho. It was a cluster bomb between the lines, associated with Arnold and Salah to break the red and white pressure and create superiorities. In waves, Liverpool was locking Atleti in the trench.

This is The Kop.

The stands roared, Atlético barely had the ball. Suffering did not suffer, but Thomas set the alarms on every ball he lost, and there were many, they were all. Liverpool turned them into side centers, as if in these three weeks they had only seen one thing: the game of a year ago in Turin. Arnold grazed the goal with a low cross shot that found the saving hand of so many times, Oblak's. Where Philip did not arrive, again immense, the Slovenian was everywhere. He caught in two times that first shot of Mané, he took out his fists to repel that lateral center that was poisoning. For Correa and Lodi it was torture to defend the right wing of the European champion. Those Arnold and Salah plus Oxlade-Chamberlain. Although Thomas, at that time, had put the losses aside, he was already going from less to more.

Two minutes before the break, it exploded in The kop so much pent-up tension. Liverpool achieved what they had been looking for 43 ': match Saúl's goal in the first leg. Wijnaldum headed the umpteenth lateral center where Oblak would not reach. 1-0. Tie tie. The party remained in that intermediate sensation for Klopp and Cholo. Between panic and euphoria, dust or rooms.

This is Munich.

The howl of the stadium traveled in all boots red nothing else to return the party. Atlético only found shelter in Oblak's gloves, which he saved and saved. Now before Oxlade-Chamberlain, then before Firmino. In between, Cholo introduced Llorente in the match and removed Costa. The Atleti was back to eleven and, without knowing it, began to write the victory of this tie although, at that moment, everything seemed against. Because, while the sky turned the rain into hail, only bombs fell on the Oblak goal. Robertson hits the crossbar at point-blank range. Arnold's lash. Everything from Liverpool. Corners, disputes, Atlético's lost balls. This is It was no longer Anfield. This is it was Munich, that siege.

Llorente tried to give energy to an Atleti who lasted the ball less than anything. The game was like a huge red light for the rojiblancos while Liverpool continued to violently look for another gap for Oblak. Robertson upstairs, Mané, Salah everywhere and Liverpool filling with shrapnel all the moments, unbearable. That Atleti came into overtime seemed like a miracle. And more so it seemed that Saul's header that slipped through the squad at the last moment. But it was not worth. Offside. Extension. The heroic began.

This is the Atleti.

This, precisely this. Because the extension began and Firmino was 2-0. It seemed the end. Nothing further. Why This is the Atleti and Adrián gave a ball to João who saw Correa offside and waited to Llorente. His was the ball and the right hand. 2-1. Madness, Atleti in quarters and 3,000 rojiblancos silencing The kop. And sent another, before the break from extra time. Another right hand that broke the net and the throats. Welcome, Marcos, to history. Liverpool needed two goals, all the siege in vain, before and after. No one knows how to suffer like Atleti. This Atleti that two months ago only a few madmen believed in. “But there is nothing more beautiful than the victory of a loser.” Enric González wrote it. Simeone took him back to the grass on another one of those nights that he likes so much. Nights for history, nights of Europe. Eating the coconut, the champion of Europe. Why this is the athletic and the Atleti always returns. Especially when nobody expects it. Neither that closing, Morata goal, several minutes lame. As if not to celebrate it. Lolololololo.