Rigorous as ever, a good header from Álvaro Morata gave Atlético three points in a tight match, more breaking and tearing than fine. Granada had more ball than real game. He had control that was not enough to scratch the Madrid team. For Simeone’s team, the victory means ending a streak of four consecutive defeats away from home. The burden that has kept him from the fight for the title. This time he came out the winner because Morata is having his best season and because it worked for him to appeal to his craft to become a union team to defend the income. The job gave him to save the duel. Without great excesses. All very surgical. Temper Granada and finish it off by applying themselves with more intensity at the start of the second half. In the first it was a vulgar team, with the brakes on waiting for a slip from its rival.
0
Augusto Batalla, Bruno Méndez, Miquel, Carlos Neva, Ricard Sánchez (Puertas, min. 84), Gumbau (Óscar Melendo, min. 79), Gonzalo Villar, Sergio Ruiz, Myrto Uzuni (Douglas Arezo, min. 67), Lucas Boyé and Bryan Zaragoza
1
Oblak, Mario Hermoso, Witsel, Savic, Marcos Llorente (De Paul, min. 45), Nahuel Molina, Rodrigo Riquelme (Samuel Lino, min. 45), Pablo Barrios Rivas (Giménez, min. 79), Saúl (Koke, min. . 76), Griezmann and Morata (Correa, min. 76)
Goals 0-1 min. 54: Morata.
Referee Juan Martínez Munuera
Yellow cards Saúl (min. 71), Savic (min. 75) and Augusto Batalla (min. 94)
Without the rage and adrenaline of the Cup and with a reduced team without four starters, Atlético displayed sullenness and timidity. Lino, De Paul, Koke and Giménez were reserved for Thursday’s cup match against Sevilla. The last two are at risk of breaking. Simeone handed the engine room to Pablo Barrios and surrounded him with the cement and the lungs of Saúl and Llorente. The result was that it took Atlético five minutes to link up a long possession.
Granada kept the ball in the first half hour. He tried to edge out on the wings with Bryan Zaragoza and Uzuni, but neither had the meters to exploit their stings in speed. The other local alternative was long balls to Lucas Boyé. In his time at Elche, the Argentine used to cause a lot of problems for Atlético by acting as a hairdresser combing balls or because of that gift he has for playing with his back. Not this time. He ran into Witsel, who with his reading of the game for anticipation has established himself as a reliable center back.
Atlético did not suffer because it did not reveal itself excessively. Nor did Granada seem willing to risk more than necessary, even if they doubled their rival’s possession of the ball. The two teams were more concerned about not falling apart than about putting effort into the imbalance. So between them they gave birth to a contained first act. One of those duels in which position takes precedence over creation. If anything, Atlético stretched a little more in the last quarter of an hour when Molina and Llorente, on the right, and Riquelme, on the left, attacked the depth a little more. He allowed it because Morata and Griezmann, regardless of the game, sustain the flame of their team with their movements. However, Atlético, like Granada, went to the dugout without a shot between the three sticks.
The urgency of the points weighed more on Simeone than on Medina. Cholo left Riquelme and Llorente in the shower to make way for Lino and De Paul. The impact was immediate. Atlético is another with the Argentine, who for several games has become the midfielder who sets the pace. Especially in rhythm and dynamics. Lino also provided his sting. And he was able to score the first time he stepped into the area. His shot, hard, but focused, was repelled by Batalla. Atlético was another. More dominating and more planted in the opposite field.
He began to carburete that triangle that Molina, Griezmann and De Paul sometimes form on the right. And that’s where he found the way to the goal. It was the Frenchman who took a tempered shot into the heart of the area. There was Morata who turned his neck to nail a precise shot into the post stump. The VAR, with a wait that seemed long, determined that Ignasi Miquel broke the offside with half a finger.
The sequence was repeated shortly after. This time it was Molina who made a good cross for Saúl to arrive. The midfielder’s header was accurate. However, this time the VAR ruled that, also by a nail, the Atlético midfielder was ahead.
Simeone’s team could not close the game, which had to adopt its most union version to control Granada’s efforts. The Medina team began a primary charge. He was eager to send crosses into the area that did not put too much pressure on either Oblak or his defense. Alone in a commotion, Witsel had to head a shot from Méndez over the goal line. Simeone understood that it was appropriate to close the duel and gave way to Correa, Giménez and Koke. The signal was already unmistakable. Atlético killed the duel in their area. With no more burden than the cluster of lateral centers that he solved well.