Once again, and it is the third, the Mexican Hector Herrera fell back into the barrier of the quarterfinals of the Champions League, with the Atlético de Madrid
against him RB Leipzig German, in a 2-1 loss in which the 'Fox'He started and played 58 minutes.
The rooms crossed again in the path of the Mexican midfielder, who aspired to everything with him Atlético de Madrid in this 'Final to Eight' of Lisbon (Portugal) but he was back in the same instance where he twice bumped into the Porto, against him Bayern Munich in 2015 and against Liverpool English in 2019.
His other four appearances in the Champions League, all of them with the Porto they were settled twice in the round of 16 (2016-17 and 2017-18) and twice in the group stage (2013-14 and 2015-16); but when he seemed favorite to be a semi-finalist for the first time in his with the Athletic, an unexpected Leipzig crossed his path.
A bittersweet ending to a difficult season for the 'Fox’Herrera in his first experience with the Athletic, a course in which he has alternated sections of ownership and substitution, in which his best streak in the eleven has been the six games that he linked between December 22, 2019 and January 23, 2020, the final of the Spain Supercup against him Real Madrid in Saudi arabiaí.
The worst were the four games without minutes with which he began his career in the League Spanish and in the Atlético de Madrid, where he has failed during this first season to be the essential footballer who exercised the captaincy at Porto.
Although his situation seemed to improve since the return from the competition after the pandemic of the COVID-19, when he participated in the four initial duels of the Madrid team, two as a starter (Osasuna, where he gave an assist, and Valladolid) and many others entering the second part (Athletic and I raised), then passed three blank, before having minutes before Celta Vigo and Getafe.
But he dismissed the championship well, playing in full the final match of the tournament against the Real society. There it was postulated as an alternative for the final phase of the Champions League, in that duel in which his partner Thomas suffered an injury that opened the gap in the eleven.
YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE CHAMPIONS GAME
Not being able to count on the Ghanaian, an essential lung in the center of the field for the Argentine coach Diego Pablo Simeone, Hector Herrera began to earn integers to be chosen to support the team with Saúl Ñíguez, and with Koke Resurrection and the belgian Yannick Carrasco by the sides.
He started in charge of the pressure, ready to go out to attack the exit of the ball of the defenders of the German team, and soon he does not get it together with Koke in the 20th minute, but generally suffered from the same problem as everyone else Athletic: He was not able to prevail in the center of the field to the dynamic Teutonic team.
Because both he and Saul they were islands before a sea of white shirts Leipzig, more effective in deployment in midfield, with fantastic work from the Slovenian midfielder Kevin Kampl and of his two squires, the French Cristopher Nkunku and the austrian Marcel sabitzer. Among them, with the collaboration of the Spanish midfielder Dani
Elm, then scorer, short-circuited the Athletic.
Unable to improve the circulation of his team's game, and with the goal of Elm in the first five minutes of the second half, Simeone looked for solutions and decided to opt for the Portuguese Joao Félix, for which he withdrew Herrera and delayed the position of Marcos Llorente to the center of the field.
There the participation of the ‘Fox', Who lived from the stands on 1-1 Joao Felix and the frenzy of Athletic in search of the second goal, and lamented from that same place of the 2-1 end of the RB Leipzig hand in hand with the American Tyler adams. The quarterfinals will continue to be the highest level in the 'Champions'Of the Mexican.