Rayo Majadahonda 0-Atlético 5 | Atleti takes the Cup seriously

The Cup poked out with sharp teeth on Cholo’s head. The memory of the rime that froze two years ago in León, of the artificial grass in Cornellà in the past. The Cup turned into its particular winter. That tournament that two days ago the fans asked him, with a banner and that phrase: Dear wise men… Well, on the day of kings Simeone delayed his gift at night but there he was at the last minute, when it was time to remove the tree: Atleti in the second round. El Majadahonda had already given him his particular gift. Choose the party in the Metropolitan. Atlético was a visitor but played with Cholo’s plates, table and tablecloth. A Simeone who, not even for those, trusted. He did not speculate even in the goal.

Because if it was Lecomte’s debut, the Cup, the tournament of all goalkeepers in the shadow of Oblak, not even that yesterday. At the beginning, there he was, Jan. And eight very starters on Sunday against Rayo Vallecano. The best, to play, as Joaquín Prat said. And as if the game were a Champions League final. Intense, suffocating. Commanded by two ‘9’, Cunha and Suárez, unprecedented forward. It was of little use to Abel Gómez to go out with a wall of men. In the first ball he lost his guardian: the goalkeeper. A foul thrown by Carrasco on the first occasion, was tempered by Kondogbia and Suárez, going to pocket the ball that escaped Gorka, stepped on his hand. His debut lasted a minute: he left with a bruised finger and in tears. Álvaro went out to a siege. The Atleti only attacked, the Majadahonda only reduced. The second ball of the game was a shot from De Paul over the crossbar. The third, a goal from Cunha that fell from the scoreboard for offside by Lodi. The next one no longer and that Cunha himself, its author, was in very offside when Carrasco robbed Casado at the exit to leave her frank. But the lineman did not see it and in this round there is no VAR. 1-0.

Lecomte could have played. The Majadahonda did not go past the center. Oblak could have been a hologram. And Rubén Sánchez. He did not smell the leather. Everything happened far away, at the feet of Álvaro. Kondogbia still had magnet in his broom boots. From his robberies, the Atleti threw bites. Llorente, with a badge already, was ‘2’ in defense but in attack he ripped off that suit and became an interior, in Super Llorente, while Carrasco was lateralized. On the left, Simeone had a knife, the one that sharpens the return to 4-4-2: Lodi. His band was a trail. In attack, Lemar took a step inside and left it complete. And Lodi kept blowing her like an enraged horn. A horn that slipped into Álvaro’s goal when Cunha stole the umpteenth ball, looked for Carrasco who found Lemar. The Frenchman felt the horn behind him and there he passed it. Lodi sent him online for the squad. 2-0. The 3-0, the tranquility, was more than a goal: it raised locks in the head of Suárez. Dry since November, from his boot it sprouted again, when he kicked a low center of Llorente What Super Llorente. His sigh of liberation was music for the Cholo.

The second half started without Giménez and Kondogbia as central. Correa looked for the fourth but ran into Álvaro just before João and It bites will return. The game was like a training session at Cerro: minutes for everyone, recovering sensations. The Majadahonda took a few steps forward so that Oblak appeared in the photo with a stop like the one he made to Iturraspe, pocketing his shot. The victory of the visitor who was local was in the numbers of the box office and not in the scoreboard: 17,769 spectators. João filled the minutes with pipes while Griezmann made the fourth to empty goal. But happiness would not be complete. An instant later he went to the tunnel, with another bite on his leg, injury, relapse, the one he never had. João closed the score when Simeone asked: “It’s over.” The Cup without teeth or rime on his head. And Atleti in the second round, go ahead, this Cup is serious. Although without Griezmann.