Winning in the rain – AS.com

Pellegrini’s Betis was washed away by a downpour. But not that rain, dense and tireless, oblivious to noise and pain, which fell throughout the game in Madrid. It was another, even more poignant: the one that came out of the red-and-white boots. Everything reminded of the champion last year. Notable Trippier and Hermoso. Back a great Savic. Koke finding in De Paul the perfect complement to carbure the team. Outstanding Carrasco. Griezmann with cape, Correa back. And the Metropolitan, again fort. Winning in the rain.

And that the first minute had not arrived and there already had Oblak to Betis, with Carvalho knocking on his door with a ball that he had stolen from Griezmann. It was raining in Madrid already. The rain enveloping each play. Simeone, so that Betis would not get wet, broke his starting trident. João Félix stayed on the bench, although Griezmann would play him and Correa, Griezmann. Savic’s return back, in defense of five, calmed the nerves of the others. They were all iron defenses again. With Savic you don’t get cold feet. Every Betic lateral center was repelled by him. Simeone smiled, sanctioned, from his box.

It was only the first five minutes of Betis. Pellegrini kept Fekir, and jumped with four changes. One was Rodri. And he filled those minutes in which the color that predominated was Betis green. He was launching his team with speed towards Oblak. But it did not last long. Atlético had left behind the haggard gesture. He responded to that first blow from Carvalho with a header from Giménez that was a declaration of intent. The heaviest rain would be the one that Pellegrini would fall from the grass. It all came out of Correa’s and Griezmann’s boots. Elusive, unbearable, unbearable for Carvalho and Guarded without an umbrella. His back was a highway to Bravo. Broken Betis, with the gap between its lines as deep as ditches.

In the Metropolitan there was only one team. It all started at De Paul. The force, the order, the command. A footballer who was born for Atleti although he did not know it until this summer. The dizziness was in charge of Correa and Griezmann, exchanging their positions and taking little birds out of the heads of the Betic defense in each interned in the area. And there were many. All from which in minute 8 the stands broke to sing with that name that filled the Frenchman’s shirt, Luis Aragonéés. His statue was released. It was his way of being. Betis did not know how to start the rojiblanco dominance. Carvalho left the tacos to De Paul in the area without anyone this time, neither then nor two minutes later, did he see a penalty. When the game returned, stopped for several minutes, Atleti made it more pissed off. Carrasco joined the Correa and Grizi recital. The goal would not be long in coming. And all three would be in the photo.

Griezmann, with a change from band to band looking for Trippier. Correa, after receiving the ball from the Englishman, breaks a rival. Carrasco, taking the Thunderstrack to the back of the net: he broke Montoya’s waist and unleashed a whip that slipped through the squad. Golazo. At halftime, five rivals were seated in the area, with a rock and roll that does not stop.

The rain returned, punctual, as soon as the rest teams returned. To see who was rushing now. Pellegrini, just in case, sought shelter by shifting to its extremes. Simeone countered with a 4-4-2 and Correa from inside, to help Tello to a Trippier who had his hands on his hamstrings since before the break. While Betis grew, Atleti ran into either Bravo (Suárez) or the linesman’s pennant (Hermoso, a goal annulled by a hair). But there was no time for Pellegrini to stick his head out and breathe.

Pezzella headed a clearance to the net and thus her team would drown. Not without one more shot, the one that João Félix would unlock with the heavy game, the ball just rolling in that curtain of rain that looked like fog. He was unmarked to finish off an assist from Carrasco that also passed through the VOR Room before going up to the scoreboard. The celebration, two minutes later, was iconic. João in the center of the field, open arms, his teammates running towards him, the rain that continued to envelop everything. Also that song, Luis Aragonéés, before the ovation, closed, to De Paul when he left. Is born. The rain baptized him.