Glory and pain in the Wanda

It was a huge game. Unpredictable in bumps and turns. With reds, comebacks, penalties and all the possible emotions in 90 minutes. Heroic and pain. In a Metropolitan converted into Calderón. The first shot was almost entangled by the referee’s opening whistle. Only seven minutes had passed when Salah ran after that ball to put his name on it.. He tied it up and started his way to the goal like a freshly loaded revolver.

He got rid of Carrasco. He sat Lemar down. He passed before Griezmann like a hurricane wind. As João Félix appeared from behind to snatch the ball from him, he raised his head and looked at Oblak with his right pulling the trigger. His shot to the center was hit just enough by Milner to make it impossible for Oblak. 0-1. Liverpool’s dominance was already on the scoreboard. They jumped to the Metropolitan with rage, revenge, cauterize a wound, that long and terrible hangover at Anfield. They rained from the first moment like a biblical plague. Filling everything with pecks, blows, attacks.

Cholo’s bet was shattered as soon as it started. Because the match started with Griezmann, João Félix’s partner. Without Suárez, without Correa, without Llorente, without Giménez. And a drama in defense. Kondogbia, third central, covered what he could, but he could not everything. Beside him Felipe was a hole that let the bullets pass. Because the rojiblanco team had not recovered from Salah’s wound when it was their turn to heal another blow. Keita again punched Oblak’s goal with a volley five minutes later. Felipe in the photo. His poor clearance in the area had turned into assist.

But Atleti is a team that should never be left for dead. The trembling gesture with which he had presented himself would leave in the 20th minute. Another match began. The tragedy ended, the epic began. Another trident would fall on Klopp’s men: the one formed by Lemar, João Félix and Griezmann, shielded by huge Koke, Carrasco and De Paul. The comeback began on the board, in a rehearsed play. Short corner, Lemar who wins the baseline, Koke’s shoe from the front and, among a forest of men, one last glimpse: the booty of Grizi, with that unique ability to light up dark matches. Simeone knew well. That’s why he came back. His goal went through the VAR before going up to the scoreboard. He was not off-side. He could hear that Metropolitan who was whistling a month ago, just clap.

Liverpool did not get off the canvas. Mané and Salah disappeared, Firmino was only a shot missed. Henderson was shipwrecked, Van Dijk humiliated, Arnold surpassed between so much physique and talent. The one that Lemar and João Félix spill on the grass when they meet, like each other and play. Undetectable the first, brilliant the second. The Portuguese cooked the second for Atleti. He danced to Keita and, when three rivals rained on him, he leaked the ball to Griezmann. The Frenchman picked it up with precise targeting control and fired. 2-2. If Liverpool did not go to the break with a bigger seam it was for Alisson, who ruined a hand-to-hand from Griezmann and chances from João and Lemar before the break. Klopp would go to the booth chewing cholismo.

Red and penalties that were and were not

The game returned with two changes, Simeone propping up his defense (Giménez), Klopp his center of the field (Fabinho), and calls in both goals. Oblak’s stop to Van Dijk, Alisson’s stop to Carrasco. What could have been this second half eleven against eleven will never be known because in 50 ‘another turn changed everything: Grizi thrown into hell. He jumped with the tacos in Firmino’s face. Unintentionally but jumped. Red Atlético with ten, the game broken. Klopp looked at the opportunity with saliva while Simeone asked the stadium for more voice. But the game still had a twist left. Or two.

If Atleti cooled down, knowing how to suffer, Hermoso truncated it with a child penalty on Jota, one of those who do not let sleep. Salah marked it. 77th minute and the game at the beginning. After so much wear and tear. Suárez, Correa, Llorente and Lodi came out almost at the same time that Giménez dropped into the area and the referee whistled a penalty. But the VAR called, went on TV and rectified. The touch seemed too light. Atleti died despite the waste. On his feet, but died.