Los Williams They devour a toothless Atlético who fails again in defense and is left without an endpenalized by the continuous errors of footballers like Savic, Nahuel o Beautiful that they are not at the level of a team that wants to fight for titles. Nico and Iñaki scored and assisted each other and they left the initial dominion of those of Simeonewho saw how The semi-final was decided in the first half in which they carried the weight, but without finishing even once with danger while Athletic, in three arrivals, scored two goals against them. All that remains is to fight for the Champions quarterfinalsbut seen what we have seen it seems like a utopia.
The tie has been a true reflection of a season in which It has not been possible to stop the bleeding of goals conceded by Oblak who seems to have left his best moments behind. That a 35-year-old former midfielder like the Belgian Witsel has been the team's most consistent defender is a demonstration of the absolute failure who has avoided fighting for anything more than the minimum objective of qualifying in the top four. In fact, even that goal is very much up in the air.
And at the beginning of the night nothing seemed to predict such a disaster. Atlético skipped the protocol and appeared in San Mames willing to be noticed from the first minute. The version that the players showed was what could be expected from a team forced to overcome an adverse result and for a while the stadium witnessed in silence a continuous succession of arrivals in front of the Bilbao goal with two shots between the three sticks, the first of Lino and the second of Beautiful. The game was looking good and Simeone seemed satisfied.
However, all the good that had been done at the start of the game It was shattered upon Athletic's first arrival. At 12 minutes, after an unsignaled foul by Galarreta on Linothe ball came from the left to Nico Williams, to which Nahuel allowed him to center at the far post where his brother Iñaki He took advantage of the distance I had left him Beautiful Mario to unleash a volley that beat an Oblak who lacked speed. Once again their glass defense cost Atlético dearly.
The goal changed absolutely everything. If the advantage that Athletic had from the first leg was already important, now The result became a tremendous loss for a team with already very fragile morale. Despite everything, he managed to get up by squeezing the talent of Lino, the only one who lived up to what was expected from the game. The Brazilian was the most active attacker, but It wasn't enough because the team only managed to create fireworks that didn't even tickle those of Valverde who, attentive, waited for their opportunity to come again.
That's how it went. At 42 minutes The play of the first goal was repeated, only in reverse. Now it was Iñaki the one who manufactured and Nico the one who executed. The mark of the first must be attributed to Hermoso now Savic the ease with which he finished the second. Be that as it may, the score rose to 2-0 in San Mamés to turn the tie into an impossible mission. Atlético needed three goals to force extra time with just 45 minutes left. A real leap of faith.
The team came out even more sunk after the break and Athletic had a couple of counterattacks to score the third. Simeone got the message and it took him seven minutes to turn the helm with Barrios, Reinildo and Memphis, who replaced Nahuel, Hermoso and Correa with the certainty that it was impossible for them to do worse than them.
The changes did not modify anything because Atlético had definitively given up. And in case there was any doubt, at 60 minutes they received the finishing touch: Athletic played at will due to the indifference of the red and white defense, Oblak horribly cleared Sancet's shot and Guruzeta, at will, pushed into the net to turn the result into a real punishment. With half an hour still ahead, the first to the last athletic player tried and failed to put their heads in a hole.
The rest of the game was a party for Athletic and an ordeal for Atlético, although at least he managed to finish without any injuries and that is already news for this team. Now it's time to reset and, from the start, get up as soon as possible because on Sunday we have to beat Betis no matter what.