Suffer, suffer and win again

That last play was the photo of the game. Herrera in the Atlético field, who had gone up to finish off a corner. Carrasco who throws the ball into the empty goal … to see it crashed into the post. That, for 86 long minutes, was Osasuna for Atleti. A head butting against the wall. A row and row for nothing. But carry on, with unshakeable faith. A stick that hurt less because Felipe had already been through the game. That Felipe who apologized for his mistakes at Anfield, his mistakes throughout the season as he found his way. A Felipe who was titular and decisive, with a header that keeps Atleti up, in the fight, making football its essence: if it weren’t suffering, it wouldn’t be Atlético.

He had jumped without Suárez, without De Paul, without Giménez. With a defense of four, old cholista coat, to see if that way it would recover the marble air. The order seemed clear: do not fit. That fear flew over every ball, from the beginning, the final minutes at Mestalla, Felipe at Anfield. His defenses huddled very close to Oblak, that there was no gap. Ahead, two long-awaited returns, those of Llorente, in the pivot with Koke, and Lemar, released by the attack, near Griezmann and Correa. Opposite, Osasuna, a rival who feels comfortable in the role of an uncomfortable rival. He jumped with personality and the booklet learned. Arrasate knows what happens to Atleti when he is introduced into a forest of legs. That is lost. And with legs he filled the Metropolitan’s lawn, with three centrals, two lanes (Manu Sánchez, without fear clause, cheered) and a trivote that, from minute one, seemed multiplied against Llorente and Koke overwhelmed.

Atleti had not finished jumping into the game and had already lost the place. The clock had not reached six and Simeone had already lost his voice, from shouting so much to Lemar to help the pivots, not to be so alone, surrounded by men. But nothing. Osasuna did not decompose, under the protection of his superiority in each line and throwing against Kike García and Chimy Ávila as stabs. There was only one detail missing: occasionally converting that domain. Because Atleti did not have the ball but they did have the danger. Like in that Griezmann thread that ended up on the side of the net. The Uy it sounded like a gong. When Herrera returned the ball to the game, it had changed. Atlético looked at their body. He had no injuries. He raised his chin and began to tear off Arrasate’s corset, pulling the Carrasco-Lemar partnership on the left and Correa’s movement on the right. To accompany Griezmann, until then very alone. His second time against Herrera he unleashed a point-blank shot that ran into Unai García’s shoulder on the way to the net.

Rest came in the spoils of It bites. In the first time that Llorente managed to escape in the race and look for the mischief of Correa and the foot of the Frenchman, who finished off the track. After a blow by Vrsaljko-Manu Sánchez that left the Croatian with gauze plugging the blood in his nose and an exchange of distant shots. A Torró missile that repelled Oblak a lo Oblak, to a stop. An attempt by Hermoso to surprise, from his field, an advanced Herrera. But nothing. 45 minutes later the game had only passed through Cholo’s vocal cords, not through the scoreboard.

The end of the first part, however, gave Cholo the roadmap for the second.. Patience in the making and band for Llorente, imprisoned in the middle. Each arrival at the bottom line of the ’14’ is an occasion. Herrera would begin to feel fire at his feet, locking your entire team in your area and moving the ball from side to side, with corners, good centers of Hermoso, looking for cracks.

The silver bullets that both coaches kept in their bank were discovered after the hour. From Paul and Suárez on the one hand. Budimir on the other. The roadmap had been just foam. It was gone, it had already disappeared. Osasuna rebuilt himself. Finding a hole for David García is more difficult than getting out of The Squid Game alive. Neither with Cunha nor with Kondogbia nor with Carrasco’s filigree when Llorente, Lemar and Griezmann’s cape were already missing. Nothing worked for Cholo that gave Carlos Martín the alternative just when Carrasco hit that corner with a gloved foot … at the head of a Felipe who jumped to undo all the red knots. And their own ghosts. Just before another decisive stop by Oblak and that stick of Carrasco that was the faithful portrait of the match… Until minute 86. That the portrait that was imposed was that of Atleti himself. Suffer, set pieces and three points.