Mallorca successfully applied to Atlético the medicine most used by the Cholo Simeone. Since his still recent arrival Javier Aguirre made it very clear that his priority was going to be to close his goal at any cost. He did not leave a single gap so that Sergio Rico could be disturbed and, conversely, a penalty from reinildo on Maffeo in one of the few local approaches allowed Muriqui turn punishment into the only goal of the match what it restores Cádiz to the relegation places from which the vermilion team is redeemed.
It will not be easy for Simeone to digest that they can beat him by administering his favorite syrup, but Javier Aguirre already made it clear what his method was going to be a week ago in Getafe: three central defenders who become five defenders when the full-backs don’t split, reinforced by one of the means ahead, Baba in this case, supported by a companion and two speedy roadrunners, dani rodriguez on the one hand and, yesterday Lee Kang-in first and Kubo then, to go out if the opportunity arises with Muriqi strong from above who, if necessary, also goes down to defend.
In short, close spaces with five, eight or ten players, goalkeeper aside, in the absence of a squad, virtues and a more comfortable classification to try other things. It did not work in the «Alfonso Pérez», but it did in Son Moix facing an enemy built for other aspirations and constrained by his technician.
Of course the match was very ugly, very ugly, soporific at times, but the measure of boredom does not weigh the same when evaluating a team of thirty million or another of two hundred. The modest not only can afford it, but needs it, it is one of his weapons. The strong should not. And look, the colchoneros went to Manchester with the same script as Mallorca today or similar and the difference is that City won there and they lost here too.
As I ventured in the previous one, that un weak to beat the powerful requires intensity, sacrifice and a spirit as high as blind but, in addition, that nothing comes out of the favorite. It is now up to the technicians who command the Wanda to analyze the reasons for their surrender, whether they laziness, laziness or impotence.
We will have heard that defenses beat forwards and similar simple analyses. What has triumphed has been, in any case, the need over a certain arrogance. Of the rest of the meeting there is little more to say. As simple as that one, the loser, was worn out, weakened and crashed into a wall and forgot that a giant does not enter through one of its cracks, but a mouse does fit and comes out.