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Alvaro Morata, at 28, could impersonate Bill Murray as the protagonist of ‘Groundhog Day’. The attacker from Madrid has an extensive curriculum, with great football stages and goals in several of the best teams on the continent such as Real Madrid, Atlético or Chelsea. Also in the Spanish national team, where he is recurrent in Luis Enrique’s lists. However, there is no perfect season for him. The lack of aim, injuries or the absence of an à la carte environment have prevented the punctuality of his football, especially after the change of year. Today (21:00, Movistar Champions League), returns to the Champions League at the hands of Juventus, against Porto and in a competition in which the Spanish, along with the Italians, has had their best nights in this sport.
Morata returned to Turin last summer (on loan from Wanda Metropolitano) as someone who returns home after the war, and there are already a few, as the player tends to overly ornate each of his transfers. His second stage at Juventus had the incentive of sharing a forward with Cristiano Ronaldo and being led by Andre Pirlo, Italian football legend on the pitch but with no experience on the bench. The attacker dazzled in the first months of competition, especially the group stage of the Champions League, where scored six goals in six games, five of them as a starter. An individual and collective career crowned at the Camp Nou, where they snatched (0-3) the first place from Barcelona. A result that, in the long run, has given them access to today’s match against Porto, second-placed in the Portuguese league.
But if there is a Morata before Christmas, there is another after them. A year ago, with Atlético, he only scored one goal (in the Super Cup, against Barcelona) in the first two months of 2020. A statistic that is repeated in the 18/19 season, halfway between England and Spain: just a little in january and february. And a year earlier, injuries and poor marksmanship extended his drought until April. This season, in Italy, there has been no improvement in this aspect. The forward was out in the first two league games due to muscular discomfort, a mishap that has kept him from regular ownership, since he shares with the Swede Dejan Kulusevski. His last goal in the league was in December, although the Spanish, yes, was one of the scorers in the Super Cup that Juventus raised against Napoli in January. «We know him (Morata) and we know that he has his casualties during the season. Especially when he is not in his best physical moment, ”Pirlo clarified in the previous match.
Juventus has been in recent years a mild but uncontrollable tide in Serie A, where it has won all its editions since 2011. Allegri’s peace on the bench, a calm man, was followed by the stormy Maurizio Sarri, an experiment that ended up leading to the hiring of Pirlo. Encouragement for an organization that is not satisfied with exercising national dominance and that seeks, like so many others, eternal recognition attached to the conquest of the Champions League. Two lost finals in the last decade, against Barça and Real Madrid, support this idea. However, there is no quiet weekend for those in northern Italy this season. Pirlo, who is beginning to be questioned, has only led the team to fourth position, eight points behind the leadership, owned by Inter Milan. The Champions, the only hatch, for team and player. Juventus must decide whether to pay at the end of the season 32 million to Atlético for the player. Morata’s future in the competition seems key in the final decision.
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