Among the 55 national associations that make up the UEFANothing else in Moldova is a team with a better streak without losing at present in their League than Atletico of Madrid, which broke its all-time record with a 2-0 win against the Betis, with which he linked his twenty-first undefeated match in the tournament.
Is he Sheriff Tiraspol, with the infinite difference that exists between one of the best leagues on the continent -or the best-, such as Spain, and a minor competition, such as Moldova, whose federation is ranked 41st in the UEFA ranking. It is the only team in Europe that surpasses such records at present.
The Moldovan leader, founded in 1997, 18 times champion of his country, at number 117 in the club ranking of the European organization and with three appearances in the group stage of the Champions League as the most recognizable international success, chain 36 games unbeaten in his league, whose domain is totally absolute.
It is a brand that is unaffordable and unimaginable today in the major European leagues, even in the top 40 on the continent, with increasing equality over the years, and probably incomparable with that achieved by Atlético, perhaps much more demanding, meritorious and Imposing by the level of the competition with his 21 undefeated duels.
There is no such case in England or Germany or Italy or France or Portugal not in Russia, not in Belgium, not in Ukraine, not in Holland, not in Turkey, not in Austria, not in Denmark, not in Scotland, not in the Czech Republic, not in Cyprus, not in Switzerland, not in Greece, not in Serbia, not in Croatia. They are the twenty associations with the best UEFA coefficient, according to their official website.
But not in Sweden, in Norway, in Israel, in Kazakhstan, in Belarus, in Azerbaijan, in Bulgaria, in Romania, in Poland, in Slovakia, in Slovenia, in Hungary, in Luxembourg, in Lithuania, in Armenia, in Latvia, in North Macedonia, in Bosnia Herzegovina, in Ireland, in Finland, in Georgia, in Iceland, in Montenegro …
THE 19 OF THE FEYENOORD, THE 18 OF SLAVIA PRAGUE, THE 16 OF MILAN AND SALZBURG …
And there are few examples that come close to the current series of the rojiblanco team: the Feyenoord chain 19 in Holland, the same as Europa in Gibraltar; he Shamrock rovers, he Ballkani and the Slavia
Prague18 in Ireland, Kosovo and the Czech Republic, respectively; he Milan, 16 in Italy, same as Salzburg, Atlético's adversary in the Champions League, in Austria.
But no one – except the Sheriff – now links the games that Atlético remains without losing. A total of 21, with 12 wins and nine draws, which are the best undefeated historical record of the rojiblanco team in the tournament and which admit individual and collective doubts, contrasts, virtues and defects and opinions, but which reduce their impact due to the undoubted dimension of the numbers.
“I don't think I am right about anything, because in football absolutely no one has reason. When you come to a club, what the club wants is to win. And if from winning you can play extraordinarily well, it will be much more beautiful. I have not met any fan who wants to draw or lose. Everyone wants to win. Obviously everyone wants to win by playing well and scoring a lot of goals, but sometimes everything that one is excited about cannot be and they keep the most important thing that this has ”, he valued Simeone.
Throughout this journey, Atlético has shown ups and downs. There is no better example than the last game, with the infamous staging this Saturday against him Betis, which overwhelmed him from start to finish in the first half, and the overwhelming response in the second half, in which he won 2-0 … And he did not thrash again due to the stops of Claudio Bravo.
He has scored 39 goals, with Marcos Llorente -the key scorer against Betis, Álvaro Morata -now at Juventus- and Joao Félix -substitute this Saturday and still with the reaffirmation of his pending potential- with more goals than anyone, with five, followed in any case very closely by Luis Suárez: four goals in his five league games. Goalkeeper Jan Oblak has received 13, unbeaten in eleven of those games.
EIGHT VICTORIES IN THE METROPOLITANO, FOUR AS A VISITOR
And there is an obvious distance in all that streak between Metropolitan Wanda, their stadium, and outside of it. At home he has won eight of his ten games, with two tied, while away from it he has won four of the eleven games, although he was unbeaten through a tie in seven of those eleven outings.
In its territory, Atlético host Salzburg on Tuesday in the second day of group A of the Champions League with the pressure exerted by their defeat in the first meeting against Bayern Munich by 4-0 and with the setbacks caused by injuries; the last, that of Yannick Carrasco, replaced by muscular discomfort.
Simeone ruled it out for the next few days, waiting for the exact confirmation of the ailment: “I wanted to put Carrasco less than what I put on him, because I saw that his game in Munich was great, that he had made a great effort and today he understood that beyond having played a great game he wanted to take advantage of fewer minutes than he had to play. Unfortunately he was injured and we are going to lose him now ”.
The Belgian winger, employed in each of the six official matches of the current campaign, although only two at the start, adds to the casualties against Salzburg in Diego Costa, who has already missed the last two games due to a muscle injury, and Sime Vrsaljko, out of competition until December for an arthroscopy in the left knee and without being released yet this season.
The doubt -serious- is Saúl Ñíguez. He has not trained with the group for a week and a half due to muscular discomfort, nor did he do so in the morning session this Sunday at the Majadahonda Sports City, with recovery for the starters and with only six men under Simeone's command. for field training: Ivo Grbic, Joao Félix, Víctor Machín, ‘Vitolo’, Manu Sánchez, Ivan Saponjic and José María Giménez, who, recently recovered from some discomfort, did not do all the exercises, according to the video released by the club of the training behind closed doors.