The team of Diego Pablo Simeone won United with a great goal of Renan Lodi and will be in quarter finals one more year. The team of Spain (with `Cholo´ as coach) has been in 7 quarter finals out of 9 in this last years. An amazing datum that showing greatness of this club. Also, Atleti is the first team of all Champions League history that eliminates three England teams (Chelsea/2014, Liverpool/2020 and United/2022).
Atletico did an awesome performance in one of the most difficult stadiums of all Europe, Old Trafford. The crown and all the fans were ready and exciting for this match and for try to win Atleti on their home. However, the defensive system of away team was really good. With 5 defenders (Marcos Llorente and Lodi as fullbacks) Atleti could defend well and create different counterattacks during all the match.
The first and only goal of the game would arrive in the last terms of first half. After an incredible collective play of Atletico (with a back-heel of Joao Felix) Lodi would score a head goal. The Brazilian defender is on his best moment as a professional player and yesterday showed one more time his potential. In addition, the performance of Oblak (with a delightful save) or Griezmann.
On the other hand, the match of United was awful. The team of Ralf Rangnick did not provide the level that we expected from them. First of all, with a very controversial start players. Marcus Rashford, Pogba or Matic were on the bench at the start. Despite of the good performance of David de Gea, the defense of United completed a bad game. They had lot of mistakes when they wanted to get the ball out of his pitch. It should be noted the performance of Harry Maguire. The England player (which was priced in 87 millions) was the worst of the match. All his decisions were not good and relevant. Players like Joao or Antoine (smaller than him) always won the duel between them. United had chances to score goals with a Cristiano Ronaldo in a active role. However, thanks to Jan Oblak (MVP of the match) and all the defense of Atletico avoided the possible comeback.
United is out from this beautiful competition and now they should focus on Premier League. Atletico is waiting rival on the Friday´s raffle. Let´s see if Cholo´s team can reach one more time semifinals of Champions League.
Jorge Barbero
