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Atleti raises the curtain on football after the break with the need not to repeat what happened after October. Bad results, doubts, two goals that tie in a discount, a lot of resentment. Simeone has worked the wounds these two weeks almost in privacy, while his internationals played around the world, with only Vrsaljko, Felipe, Kondogbia and Hermoso. And also two reinforcements. Two footballers who return today, when their team needs them most. Lemar and Llorente. A winning Atleti can no longer be understood without them.
His wounds, muscular, both of them, are already healed. And if they are, they play. It is non-negotiable. Like the effort. Trippier will be missing, due to that grade III sprain in his shoulder at Mestalla, and João Félix, with a blow, but there are them, Llorente and Lemar, direct to eleven. Simeone must decide if the Suárez, Correa or De Paul play, almost from the plane to the eleven, or he reserves them thinking of Milan. El Cholo faces Osasuna in the Metropolitano in need of points (he is five behind the head, of the Real), of sensations (he does not lose in his stadium but there are already three draws in six games), of a blow on the table. The one that resounded when his Atleti jumped onto the fields and raised the fronton before Oblak, impregnable. Not now. Now any lateral center collapses like a house of cards. The technician meditates returning to 4-4-2. Vrsaljko will take Trippier’s place (follow today’s game live on As.com).
Osasuna is the third best visitor in this League. Four wins, seventh. And with a rojiblanco shining on the left side: Manu Sánchez. A Manu Sánchez that shines again in his loan in Pamplona. Without fear clause, titular. Today in the Metropolitano he will occupy the left lane in a plan, that of Arrasate, which is similar to the one he had in the Bernabéu: 5-3-2. His high pressure and his order in defense are his assets, with Unai García and David García Muros in the anticipation and the aerial balls.
Above, Budimir has overcome pubalgia but will not be a starter yet. Yes, that old Cholo wish, Chimy Ávila, at the top with Kike García. In memory, the penultimate day of last LaLiga, in which Osasuna was about to move away from the title. Today Atleti will seek to return to splendor. Forget all resentment.