Just two wins in their last eleven away games in Champions League qualifiers alert the Atletico Madrid already Diego Simeon for the second leg of this Tuesday’s round of 16 against Manchester United at Old Trafford, where the coach will propose an attack made up of Joao Felix and Antoine Griezmann, as in last Friday’s game against Cádiz, from which only two positions and names will vary: Renan Lodifor the sanctioned Yannick Carrascoand Felipe Monteiroand Jose Maria Gimenez he cannot start from the beginning due to the ailment he suffers in the soleus.
The goalkeeper Jan Oblak; the, today, right winger Mark Llorente (relocated there due to the casualties of Daniel Wass and Sime Vrsaljko); the centrals Stefan Savic and Reinildo Mandava, in addition to Giménez or Felipe; and the midfielders Rodrigo de Paul, Hector Herrera and Koke Resurrection (not available yet Geoffrey Kondogbia) complete the probable eleven that the coach devises to look for an essential win to move forward in European competition.
The 1-1 in the first leg at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium, due to the greater merits accumulated by the rojiblanco team, keeps everything balanced, because away goals are no longer worth double in the event of a tie, and transfers the resolution of the tie the winner of the match at the ‘Teatro de los Sueños’; a magnificent scenario to show if Atlético is still in force in the tournament of tournaments.
Joao Felix, the scorer of the first leg with a tremendous header, will attack such a challenge together with Antoine Griezmannjust like last Friday against Cádiz.
It is the bet today for the forward of Simeonebetween the severe bruise on the foot that still drags Angel Strap, the most decisive of all Atlético’s offensive men this season (12 goals in 37 games) and in 2022 (seven goals and three assists in the 13 games played in the new year); the already repeated substitution of Luis Suarez (at Old Trafford it will be his fifth straight game on the bench); and leave due to injury until at least next April Matheus Cunhaout since February 17 due to a sprain of the internal lateral ligament of the right knee.
YOUR NUMBERS TOGETHER
Until now, Griezmann and Joao Félix have not coincided on the pitch in Simeone’s scheme. Of the 21 matches with both available to the Argentine coach, only in ten have they shared their football and only four in the eleven: in the tenth and eleventh day of LaLiga Santander against Real Sociedad and Levante, with two draws and with the ‘trident’ formed with Luis Suárez at the beginning; in the duel of the group stage of the Champions League against Liverpoolon October 19, 2021, with a 2-3 defeat at the Metropolitano (Atlético deserved much more) and with both as forwards, just like last Friday against Cádiz and the same as it will be this Tuesday in the visit to Old Trafford.
In total, of the 1,890 minutes in which the two could have coincided on the field, they have only done so in 392 (nothing more than 20.7 percent), over ten games, but which show an undoubted collective performance and individual, with six wins, three draws, one defeat (against Liverpool, although it was one of the best games of the season for the rojiblanco team) and eight goals between the two when they shared their football.
three were from joao felix (in the twelfth league match against Betis, in the twenty-seventh also against the Verdiblanco block and last Friday against Cádiz) of the seven he has achieved throughout this campaign; five of Griezmann of the eight he has achieved throughout the year, with goals next to Joao against Levante (2-2), Rayo Majadahonda (0-5), Milan (1-2), with his team’s comeback, and Liverpool (2-3), with a sensational double.
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Joao is at his best moment of the season. He has scored five goals in the last five games, when before he had only scored three in the previous 22 duels. In addition, four at the start of the duel, before minute 7, and three before minute 3, to boost Atlético’s best run of the campaign in LaLiga Santander, with four consecutive victories, and the best sequence without losing, five games, between all competitions since last September.
“We are confident, we are playing well,” the French international told the club’s media this Sunday., who returned to the starting lineup on Friday after 15 games: nine out between a muscle injury suffered on December 12 and the subsequent relapse on January 6; a meeting in between in which the muscle rupture wound was reopened; another, recently recovered, against Osasuna, on the bench; and the last four with participation, against Celta, Manchester United, Betis and Cádiz, heading to the duel at Old Trafford.
“I am taking minutes. It was important to go little by little. For me it was important not to relapse again. We’re doing things very well and hopefully I can help the team like I’ve been doing lately and be able to score goals or assists and win”, reviewed Atlético’s ‘8’, who will lead alongside joao felix an eleven that, in principle, will only present two novelties with respect to the 2-1 against Cádiz, although that meeting again discovered another disappointing version of the rojiblanco team, beyond its punch, of joao felix and of the 2-1 victory.
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