Marcos Llorente is playing a lot tonight against Porto, equipment you’ve heard your father talk about many times. At home, and also in the European Cup, Paco had one of his most impressive exhibitions. It was the 87-88 season and Llorente turned Das Antas upside down, the stadium of the dragons then, with two actions that, in his own way, Marcos could attempt today in Do Dragao. Yes indeed, Paco got it in white as a Real Madrid player.
That appointment was on November 4, 1987, the round of 16. Beenhakker’s team had fallen in luck Porto, current European champion, and in the first leg, played in Valencia by suspension, the whites had won 2-1. And in the return, the game got uphill: at halftime Porto won 1-0. So at halftime the Dutch coach opted to give entrance to Llorente for the left wing. And the footballer, who was 22 years old, dynamited the match with his overflow and his power.
In the 55th minute, the first blow. Llorente entered thrown from the left, broke his marker with a bicycle and served the penalty spot for Míchel to shoot: 1-1. In minute 71 he made it even more beautiful. The extreme escaped from three rivals alongside the band, reached the baseline and again served behind for Míchel to double. “All the credit goes to Paco, he has done two tremendous plays, in the style of his uncle, Gento “, acknowledged that night the bigoleador, remembering that Llorente is one more of the Paco Gento saga, the footballer who has the most European Cups in his record even today (six). AND thick, another white legend, was his father-in-law (and Marcos’s grandfather).
That night at Das Antas was famous for Llorente, perhaps on the same level as that of his son Marcos in 2020, when entered Anfield to sink Liverpool, also then the continental champion, with two goals.
The crossroads of the Llorente
Another link between Paco and Marcos, father and son, is that both have worn the shirts of Madrid and Atlético. Of course, the paths have been reversed and quite different. The rojiblanco today jumped from the Bernabéu because there he did not have the minutes he wanted, but Paco’s was much more controversial.
Paco Llorente, with Atlético
Luis Aragonés made him debut with Atleti in 85-86 and in the following campaign, Llorente exploded. Mendoza went after him and managed to sign him because Paco pioneered Decree 1006, that allowed the unilateral termination of contracts in exchange for compensation, in this case 50 million pesetas (about 300,000 euros). That case exploited the function of the termination clauses, something unknown until now.