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There are already countless occasions that the Athletic has been traced this season a game after going ahead on the scoreboard. There are also numerous, increasingly, the times that the rojiblancos are outmatched in set pieces. Thus came the two goals that put Athletic in the final and sent the rojiblancos home, once again subjected to their defensive errors and their lack of ambition.
He arrived at Atlético ahead at minute 75, he already dreamed of a final against the eternal rival and the possibility of achieving his third Super Cup. And in just four minutes, shaking as a glob of jelly, he threw everything to the ground.
An Atlético did not deserve better luck where the best was once again Oblak, author of four miraculous saves, the kind that he turned into routine and that Atlético has missed so much in recent times.
But not even that is enough before his little character behind.
cloud, relatively quiet in the first half, save for a powerful shot from Iñaki Williams, grew in the second half, especially after Atlético got ahead. But his wand reaches what it reaches. As soon as Joao Félix scored, he saved a point-blank header from Íñigo Martínez. Later, he managed to delay the draw for a few minutes after saving another whip from Iñaki. And finally he avoided Nico’s goal just before the lions sealed the comeback. «There are many goals conceded this year. It is the question that we have to solve, “admitted the Slovenian as soon as the match ended. «Many are due to their own failures, not due to the merit of the other team. It is a difficult time. Being scored twice from set pieces is difficult to explain. We have to find a solution, because it will continue like this until the end of the season … ».
Along with the performance of the Slovenian, to highlight something else, was the complete game of Joao Félix, which is already a novelty, and his fourth goal of the season, a goal that put his team ahead and that for a few minutes returned the smile to a team little given to alegrías since the season started. Joao appeared in that strange eleven concocted by Simeone installed next to Correa in an unprecedented attack point. The Argentine coach, who had only trusted the Portuguese as a starter in seven of the 17 games played so far, gave him a new opportunity to excel, always claiming his talent on the field because in the two and a half years he has been wearing the shirt rojiblanca has barely shown it with a dropper. Always in the spotlight for his intermittences, his defensive imbalances or his slights and anger at being substituted, but seldom, too few, for wasting something of his indisputable quality.
Explosive start
Joao’s outburst was hopeful. Nine seconds later he had stood before Unai Simón’s goal to shoot the ball into the net, although in a clear offside. And after two minutes he shot high a good assist from Lemar in which, in the end, it was the best chance of his team in the entire first half. Joao bit his shirt out of sheer despair at the missed occasion. Placed on top, with an unexpected nine and with Correa heeled to the right, he showed that he had gone into the game wanting to be the protagonist. But the sparkles did not go further. Then it faded at the same rate as the clash did, a duel played in transit, like a pre-season friendly. Little by little the centrals were gobbling him up.
The game continued with the same exhausting and desperate tonic on the way back from the changing rooms. Joao went down more and more meters to try to touch something with the ball, connect with his teammates and give some life to a dying game, but he was not too successful either. It was just when Cunha and Suárez jumped to warm up in the band, implying that the Portuguese’s time in the match was running out, when the goal arrived. Joao Félix jumped more than De Marcos at the far post and his tight shot surprised Unai Simón. A fleeting joy.
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