The Champions will have to wait

Atlético fell cruelly again in Lisbon. This time for a rebound goal with two minutes remaining. He had managed to tie Dani Olmo's goal thanks to a great Joao Félix (Someday Simeone will have to explain why he left him as a substitute in the decisive game of the season). RB Leipzig was better than Atlético. Julian Nagelsmann gave a tactical review to a Simeone who once again failed to react in a decisive match. The Champions League will have to wait once again for Atlético.

Simeone's Atlético is like Duralex china. They are those plates, those green or brown glasses that have been and continue to be in every house. They are not pretty dishes, quite the opposite, but that day after day they serve you for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They resist and resist. They never seem to break. The Atleti is not a wedding tableware or Ikea tableware, it is a sturdy tableware. Many times you think of changing it for another more pleasant to look at, but in the end you stay with it because it does its service.

For the past eight years, Simeone has always had those Duralex dishes ready to serve the pizza he cooks. In the quarterfinals of the Champions, even if they are a single game, Cholo was not going to change the menu. That pizza with his 1-4-4-2 was the one he cooked against RB Leipzig, where his new coach, Julian Nagelsmann is more about minimalist cuisine, spherification and modernity.

Atlético waited in their field for RB Leipzig to try to steal and go on the counterattack. The German team was the owner of the ball, but the chances were falling for Atlético. After a shot to the clouds from Halstemberg in the fourth minute, all the opportunities in the first half went to Atlético except for one in the extension in which Upamecano finished off with a header from a corner to the center at the hands of Oblak.

Between those two occasions of RB Leipzig, in which the Spanish Angeliño and Dani Olmo stood out, Atlético was able to score in the 9th minute an action from set pieces, a lateral foul that Lodi bounced and Savic headed powerful and the ball came out as a parable and he created problems for Gulasci who ended up tackling the leather. Three minutes later, after a combination between Lodi and Carrasco, the Belgian shot with his right so that the Hungarian goalkeeper cleared for a corner in an action of merit.

Atlético came out to put pressure on Leipzig looking to set a trap for Upamecano that is left over at the start of the game. The mattress attacks were produced more on the left wing with Lodi and Carrasco than on the left with Trippier and Koke. The English side just joined the attack because the permanent incorporations of Angeliño forced him to maintain his defensive role.

Marcos Llorente did not receive a ball. He held his position as second striker, but until minute 39, in which he fell to the left wing and challenged Upamecano in a race, the Madrid footballer did not appear. Like Diego Costa, who barely participated in that first part. Atlético did not suffer in the first half and commanded in both areas, but they again lacked having the offensive phase mechanized as the defense has. Savic and Giménez were two bastions against the onslaught of the Red Bull team, which was looking for its options behind Lodi and Trippier and Héctor Herrera, with that line of three half points led by an imperial Dani Olmo and an overflowing Nkunku.

After the break, Simeone did not move his pieces and kept the plan to await his options against him. RB Leipzig increased their speed in the game and in a manual move from static attack to defense in intensive retreat, circulating from one band to another, came Dani Olmo's goal, which to his combinative football, his fight, his quality, always add your arrival. Dani Olmo wanted Atleti because his wish was to play rojiblanco and one of the two parties did not fulfill the agreement.

As so many times, the goal against made Atlético advance lines. Simeone al fino took Joao Félix to the grass. And every time the Portuguese touched the ball, his substitution was less understood. Leipzig were being superior, but they 'bored' every time they reached the area and they always had a pass to spare. In those Diego Costa did his only good action of the night and returned a wall to Joao Felix who was caught when he was going to finish. The Menino de Ouro said that the penalty was thrown by him and scored the tie.

Atlético seemed closer to victory, but Leipzig followed theirs. Simeone changed Costa for Morata man by man and he contributed little else to seek victory, except to take Felipe out for Koke to put a central up to Alexanko to try equalize Leipzig's cruel goal with Adams' shot that bounced off Savic in the 88th minute as the game went into extra time. Next year Atlético will try again. Like Sisyphus.