When Antoine Griezmann arrived at Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2014, he kickstarted the Colchoneros’ best run of form in their rivalry against Real Madrid. There were eight meetings with Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid in 2014/15 between the Supercopa de Espana, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Antoine Griezmann was one of football’s highest paid players, he is a World Cup winner and a perennial Ballon d’Or nominee, but until now nobody knew just how much he earnt per season with Barcelona. It is clear that Antoine Griezmann has returned to Atletico Madrid to play and Diego Simeone, so keen to have him back, must now find the best way to fit the Frenchman into the team. This is more bad news for an Atleti side that has been struggling domestically, with Diego Simeone now having to restructure his attack.
With Griezmann as their star, Atletico went into the 2016 Champions League final hoping to get the better of their city rivals. The international break gave El Cholo a chance to reflect on how best to incorporate Griezmann, and the packed CONEMBOL schedule seemed like the perfect excuse to rest Angel Correa and slot the France international straight into the team alongside Luis Suarez. It was Simeone who moulded Griezmann into a world star, and his new task is to help him get back to that version of himself. They’ll hope, with him back, that they can this Sunday earn a first derby victory since that night in Tallinn. The first was the Supercopa, with Griezmann celebrating his first title straight after arriving thanks to a 1-1 draw and 1-0 win, in which he provided the winning assist. Here, we take a look back at some of the derbies that Griezmann was a part of during his first spell in the Spanish capital.
Simeone’s changes at half time, however, seemed to do the trick and Griezmann looked better in the first minutes of the second period. Joao Felix can come in and his coach will hope the Portuguese can build on his bright showing in the second half of the derby. They hadn’t won any between 1999 and 2013, but then started to enjoy this fixture and the arrival of the Frenchman helped to build on that 2013 Copa del Rey triumph. By the end of that season, the Frenchman had won three and drawn one of his four league derbies, but he lost the most painful one. But, the Frenchman was taken off at half time of that match as he was feeling discomfort. He hit a penalty off the crossbar in the second half of the final that was eventually decided via a shootout. That meant the Argentinian boss tweaked his system to deploy both Correa and Griezmann playing off Suarez.
The truth is that Atleti missed Lemar when he wasn’t on the pitch and the slight alteration in system meant that they lacked control of the middle of the park. Meanwhile, Barça are living one of their best moments in the domestic competition, as they have won each of their last four matches in the league and 11 of their last 12 after displaying a pretty solid game against Huesca (4-1) last Monday. Atleti also came out on top in the Copa del Rey tie, while they enjoyed a 4-0 victory over their rivals in league play at the Estadio Vicente Calderon.
Tras la destitución de Marcelino en 2019, después de ganar la Copa del Rey y clasificar al equipo para la Champions, el club no levanta cabeza. ↑ a b «El Granada contrata a Sandoval tras la destitución de Abel Resino». ↑ «El Aztecazo que Costa Rica nunca olvidará». Pese a que ahora mismo ocupa la decimoquinta posición y roza los puestos de descenso, cuenta con un colchón de seis puntos sobre el decimosexto clasificado, que en la Bundesliga se juega la permanencia en un play-off. Prácticamente recuperado, el brasileño cuenta con más de un equipo interesado en él, sobre todo en Inglaterra, donde ya militó antes de llegar al Barcelona.
Lo dejaré todo como siempre ha sido mi estilo de jugar en el campo y afuera. Creo que se están haciendo muy bien las cosas en el Atlético y yo estaré en el campo o fuera para ayudar. Yo quería volver sí o sí y sabía que era el mejor lugar para mí para estar feliz dentro y fuera del campo. Y sin embargo yo me siento cien por cien argentino, pero mi familia tiene mucho de Europa, aparte de mi abuelo, mi bisabuela era italiana. Era un dato tan tremendo como clarificador de lo que ocurría en el terreno de juego. Es la nada tan habitual: incapacidad para generar juego de ataque , salir con el balón, precisar los pases, comprometer al rival con el ingenio. Arribas, excelente en su control del balón, dio un pase magnífico para que Pablo Rodríguez cabeceara el primer gol del encuentro en una acción de pillo.
Solo 27 minutos tardó el Clásico de la temporada 22-23 en tener su primer gol, y no fue un gol cualquiera aunque viniera de un error defensivo, por la calidad del gol y por el autor del mismo, Raphinha, uno de los fichajes estelares del Barça para esta campaña. Sin embargo, las arcas del club catalán siguen siendo el lastre del equipo, a la hora de pensar en la próxima temporada. Por esos años, convertido ya en el centro de la intelectualidad limeña, concurría a las veladas literarias que se realizaban en la librería de los hermanos Pérez o en los portales de la Plaza de Armas. Todo indica que seguirá pero las operaciones entre Atleti y Barça han tenido vaivenes en los últimos años, como pasó con el frustrado trueque entre Saúl y el propio Griezmann.