Rayo Vallecano 0-Athletic Madrid 1 | Vallecas, resurrection of Koke

The thumbs that in the 49th minute pointed to the ‘6’ behind their backs well know what Vallecas is. The neighborhood, the fight, the delivery. That place where its owner grew up and that will always be in his football, even though his colors are other, red and white from alevin. Because Koke lacked the goal to reaffirm his resurrection and it had to be in Vallecas. It was just coming back from break. You know, there is no worse wedge than that of the same wood.

The two were on the Vallecas hina. Well, actually, everyone from Old Trafford was there. For Simeone, there is no greater principle in football than that, if something works, it is better not to touch it. Not even among its narrower margins did Suárez have the title, the bench and a routine. Iraola, meanwhile, opened his eleven type to merits: Baby, scorer of his last two goals, starter, Baby and not Isi, to combine Álvaro’s speed on the left with his power on the right. His was the first arrival of Rayo to the lands of Oblak. From Griezmann, the first to those of Dimitrievski. The two balls went to some balcony of those who embrace Vallecas. The clock hadn’t reached the fourth minute and both teams played as if the game had been installed in a long 90 minute. Intense, disputed, although nothing materialized in the areas.

Not even that foul that De Paul launched with a periscope to Joãomann, Cholo’s latest invention to pierce rivals: the pair formed by his ‘7’ and his ‘8’ as a single man. Always mobile, active, spilling talent. João, with a header, extended for Griezmann’s shot that, only against Dimitrievski, he finished off badly and went. Atleti started comfortable, following Herrera’s order, but as the minutes went by, Rayo began to have more of the ball. Longer possessions always stamped in the same place: Reinildo, that man who is a brick, immovable. The return of the word lost by Cholo, solidity, must be found in his boots. End.

In the opposite area, meanwhile, Atleti entered without the prudence of someone who enters someone else’s house as soon as they exceeded the first line of pressure. He only lacked one thing. The Tino. Or that the referee did not see a Balliu penalty on João or a rayist hand. Because João, in a delicious masterclass of oriented controls, either, like Grizi before. He headed a corner a foot from the squad. While Rayo, vertical, continued to grow with the ball, Atleti closed in, waiting together, in Vallecas it is easy, to get out quickly and trust the class of Joãomann. Comesaña risked going to the shower for stopping a Portuguese run towards the area with traps when he already had a yellow card. If they show him the second one, he keeps it.

As soon as the half-time game came back, that came. The collective play, the sublime wall from João to Koke, his surgical definition, the goal at last. He woke up Lightning after seeing his thumbs to the bib. Because Griezmann was close to 0-2 but he again threw a ball out filtered by De Paul and, later, only Rayo sent. A Rayo that was launched on Oblak’s goal, forcing Mario Suárez to take out the miracle gloves with a shoe from outside the area. Rayo asked for a penalty by Reinildo’s hand in a play that Atleti took the ball on the line that neither the referee nor VAR punished.

Simeone responded immediately, with a triple change. João left chewing nails, Suárez, inside. Atleti stood up, Rayo let go. The ball, his, the occasions, too, like the one in which Nteka, alone against Oblak, sent another ball to a ball. The wear, of Griezmann with the work overalls on the tail, in another exercise of sacrifice for the exciting group. And it is that, from minute 85, Atleti played with 10. Correa expelled after saying something to a referee already hot with De Paul. Her nerves filled the air. And the last time Atleti was against Suárez he ran to show the world that even in Vallecas he has a hard time running. And Rayo responded with another that Giménez sent to a corner. It was the last of the game. Dimitriesvki went up to finish offBalliu sent it to the hands of Oblak after a series of rejections, between a forest of legs, the howl of Vallecas, that night defeated by one of the neighborhood. Koke Resurrection.