The leader, to recover the step in Granada

Atlético faces in Granada the first opportunity to return to the path of victory and thus regain firm footing in the League after the stumble of the tie against Celta in the Metropolitan. It is not that the point against the Galicians was a drama, even more so considering that the colchoneros faced the duel with up to six casualties, some of them very important, due to the contagion of covid-19 within the squad. However, Simeone’s team has accumulated 16 victories in 20 league games and has accustomed its own and strangers to victory as a routine.

For the appointment at Nuevo Los Cármenes almost at lunchtime, Atlético recovers effective numbers, with the return of two fundamental players in the scheme of three centrals and two lanes as they are Mario Hermoso and Carrasco. The Madrilenian returned in time for the last training session prior to the game although he arrives with little filming. The Belgian has more chances of being in the eleven, reincorporated throughout the week to group sessions with the rest of his teammates after overcoming the coronavirus, which is seriously affecting the rojiblanco dressing room in the form of a British strain. Meanwhile, Joao Félix, Dembélé, Lemar and Herrera remain as casualties and Giménez also falls due to injury.

“When the second round begins, everything is different due to obligations, emotions, responsibilities, to enter the Champions League, fight for the title, not go down … The numbers of the second round are very difficult to be similar to those of the first”, he warned Simeone, who preferred not to enter into general evaluations regarding the performance of his team beyond the commandment from match to match and avoided resorting to casualties as an excuse, since from his point of view they are a reflection of «what happens in society ».

Now the plague of absences is also transferred to Granada, because Diego Martinez has the last minute absences of two pillars in attack as Soldier and Luis Suárez, both due to muscular problems. Nor are they available to the Galician coach Luis Milla, Quini and Neyder Lozano, while Gonalons, Eteki and Yangel Herrera arrive with doubts although they may be from the game.

“We have to sharpen our spirit of survival. We do not complain about adversity, even if we explain the reality we have, “Diego Martínez acknowledged in the previous meeting, after acknowledging that the Nasrid line-up will be” conditioned “by the flood of casualties.

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