Sergio Conceiçao will dream of Oblak. Look at Benfica and Sporting in the final phase of the Champions League and Portuguese football could have put three in the round of 16 for the first time in its history. But not. Luis Díaz was almost celebrating the goal at O Dragao when he unloaded a cross shot into the area, which was repelled with a technical marvel Oblak. He lunged, reached for the ball and propelled it with his right hand hard to move it away from the vertical of the goal. For many it was the key moment of a night of rojiblanca European feat. Because Milan had taken the lead at the San Siro two minutes earlier and the news of the goalkeeper’s goal would have multiplied Lombard’s confidence. Much would have changed. Then came Salah’s goal and attenuated the first flood of the Conceiçao team.
But Oblak would stop the second again, when Taremi finished another against Portuguese with 0-0. He planted himself in the area and fired a cross shot. Oblak seemed to win on his left in the 54th minute, but he reacted so that Atlético would hold on to the game with life jackets. A minute later, Griezmann made it 0-1. The rest is history. Oblak was once again Simeone’s bodyguard. The best, without a doubt, that he has had in the last eight years. It was the most delicate moment of the club’s present.
Nerves, many, in the offices and in the locker room. The tension was palpable, because it was counted on the pass to eighth as a great objective, beyond the label of the group of death. In economic matters and also in sports, it was essential to get the classification. And the meta added another great European night to his archive. Like the one against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, or the one about the triple stop at Leverkusen, or the one on the day that they silenced Bayern in the semifinals, or the exhibition against Lokomotiv, or that of the resistance against Arsenal in the Europa League or the one that Klopp still dreams of in the Champions League …
“His desire is that, to always be ready for when the team needs him the most, from the first day he is at Atlético”, those closest to the Slovenian slipped after his last exhibition, in which, as on other occasions, the goalkeeper it didn’t make it much more relevant. And it is so, Atlético has never failed its luxury artificer in the most delicate moments. A few days ago Oblak finished third in the voting for the Yashin award, behind Donnarumma and Mendy. Probably no rojiblanco would change their goalkeeper for any of those.