They must have been close to two in the morning of Thursday when the last employee of the Metropolitan went out through the door.
At that time a stadium was closed that might not be opened in Champions until September 2022. It is the consequences of which, in the absence of that final in Porto, it is the worst group stage of the nine consecutive ones that Atlético has played
Since Diego Pablo Simeone took a seat on the bench.
In less than a month a decade will be met and a decade of that.
However, the Champions League, that wound so many times open on the skin of the Argentine technician, threatens to eluggest the anniversary.
“I am more optimistic than ever because we are still with life,” was his last word and mantra that from here to two weeks (December 7), when the team visits Dragao, wraps every corner of the stadium and hill hill of
Majadahonda, where the team trains.
The reality is that Atlético has gotten into a good mess.
And he has done him, one after another, a handful of negative records.
He had never been found at this point with only four points.
A draw against the Porto and that agonizing comeback in San Siro were the advance of three films in a row.
In 2017, during the famous Champions of the Qarabag and the descent to Europe League, the Rojiblancos added five points.
A year earlier, in 2016, after five victories in five parties (15), one of the Bayern of Ancelotti, the lead had already been assured.
In euros, the matter translates into only 3.7 million over 14 possible, such as those, for example, Liverpool has been packed.
He had never seen seven goals before after five days.
Moreover, on the way to the final of Lisbon, in that first adventure in the League of Simeone Champions (2013/14), received six in 12 games.
And seven fit into the crossing until the end of Milan, in 2016.
He had never lost two games in the metropolitan before.
In fact, the only defeat in Europe took place on the day of its premiere, in front of Chelsea (1-2).
Until the desecration of Liverpool and Milan, no one (not even Bayern) had been able to leaving airy from the Rojiblanco enclosure.
Obviously, the athletic had not fallen three times in the same phase either.
And only once, in that 2017 that did not end well, he added so few targets like the ones he has now.
Four clamps (three of Griezmann) squeezed up to the last drop to arrive with options at the end of Oporto.
Only six of the 26 teams have had less success.
In his 11 European matches with Atlético, Luis Suárez, the team scorer, he has only scored a little.
Of Penalty, in Milan.
But the hesitants in the Champions are not new.
The affair comes from afar.
Paradoxically, from that magical March 11, 2020. That night in Anfield, that of the explosion of Llorente Marcos and the Pandemic’s officialization, the life of athletic in Europe became uncomfortable.
It is not an opinion.
The numbers sing.
If the growth in the league after the paron by the virus is incontestable, it is also the decline in the continental competition.
With Wednesday before Milan, he accumulates seven defeats, four draws and only three victories (two before Salzburg and one, on the horn, in San Siro) in the 14 games after Liverpool’s miracle.
A puzzle periplo where the defense has ceased to be a virtue and the stuck is still under suspicion: 20 goals against and 12 in favor.
By comparing, in the 14 episodes prior to that indelited assault on the European Champion Garden, the Rojiblancos totaled eight victories (before Juventus, Liverpool or Borussia Dortmund), two draws and four defeats.
In this journey they achieved 18 o’clock and fit 13. From that balance of +5 to this, blushing, of -8.
Looking back, those 26 goals in favor and 10 against (four in the final of Lisbon) appear in the 13th games of the first season of Cholo in Champions (13/14).
It is all an enigma what happened after Anfield, in that parentheses by the Coronavirus, since the staff has barely varied for badly at substantial (on the contrary) in the 20 months since then.
And although in the dispatches of the metropolitan they have insisting since 2013 that the important thing is to qualify each year for the Champions, so that the numbers fit, not being in the end of the end it would be a pinch for your pocket.
They are 9.6 million which would be on the road, apart from the fact that the Market Pool would go down the smallest number of disputed matches.
The fact is that, for the third consecutive season, Atlético will play the skin in the last chapter.
You will have to win in Oporto.
But, in addition, if Milan defeats Liverpool, he must do it by somewhat more than Italians.
And that, seeing Rojiblancian sweats in this champion league anxiety, does not seem simple task.
