Diego Simeone

Madrid, Dec 11 (EFE).- At the moment of Atlético de Madrid at the Metropolitano, winner of its last 19 official competition matches in front of its public, launched from its stadium to still aspire to everything this season, the nuance of their long-suffering victory against Almería and the goals against in 13 of those matches.

While Lazio appears in a final match for first place in the Champions League group, this Wednesday in red and white territory, only in six of those 19 wins have they escaped a goal against. And only two correspond to the last eleven duels of Diego Simeone’s team in their field.

Even so, in that entire journey they only had to come back four times: against Villarreal (3-1), against Feyenoord (3-2), against Cádiz (4-2) and against Mallorca, the latter last season, when they won by 3 -1.

It was not only Almería, the last in the LaLiga EA Sports classification, who scored a goal in the Atlético field, making them suffer until the end, in a reckless local indolence that was on the verge of the embarrassment that a tie would have caused after having taken a 2-0 lead without discussion, in the first 21 minutes through Álvaro Morata and Ángel Correa.

Mallorca did not achieve it this season, whom they had also beaten in a hurry in their previous match at home. Not even weeks before Celtic (6-0). They are the only two unbeaten duels in their field this campaign.

In the previous one, also within that sequence of 19 successive wins that still persists, they maintained a clean sheet against Athletic (1-0), Valencia (3-0), Betis (1-0) and Osasuna (3 -0), since last February 19 when he started winning without pause at the Metropolitano.

Yes, nine more rivals have scored there, apart from Almería. Villarreal (3-1), Alavés (2-1), Real Sociedad (twice, 2-1 and 2-1), Feyenoord (3-2), Cádiz (twice) achieved it. occasions, 3-2 this year and 5-1 the previous one), Real Madrid (3-1), Granada (3-1), Mallorca (3-1), Almería (last year by 2 -1) and Sevilla (6-1). Eleven of those goals against were concentrated in their eleven most recent games.

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More scorer… And more goals scored

In an Atlético with more goals, with 47 goals scored in 20 games (2.35 per match), all of this occurs in a team with more goals scored than before. It is the second season with the highest goals against average of the Simeone era, overall home or away, with 20 in 20 games. An average of one per game.

The only one that makes it worse is the 2021-22 season, with 57 goals conceded in 51 games (1.11 per game).

The others are better in that defensive sense: 0.93 last season; 0.77 in 2020-21, the last time he was League champion; 0.8 in 2019-20; 0.86, in 2018-19; 0.61, in 2017-18; 0.77, in 2016-17; 0.54, in 2015-16; 0.76 in 2014-15; 0.72 in 2013-14; and 0.76, in 2012-13.

Likewise, the current season is the one with the fewest unbeaten games. There are six of twenty. 30 percent.

The others under the direction of the Argentine coach presented a higher percentage, from 61 percent in 2015-16, the best of all in that section, with 35 clean sheets in 57 games, to 31 percent in 2021-22 , the worst of all so far, with 16 in 51 games.

In its visible offensive expression, much more powerful in its field than outside, there is more defensive exposure. But what happened against Almería does not correspond to that. It was a matter of attitude, intensity and interest after the 2-0 in their favor. When the score appeared 2-1, Atlético trembled, clinging to their goalkeeper Jan Oblak so as not to fall on their faces in the match.

“I’m happy for the first 35 minutes and the final 10… And to work in that space that the team took its foot off the accelerator,” explained the Argentine coach.

A warning within a streak that surpasses its own history of the League, with the record of 17 consecutive wins (the previous one was 14, also with the Argentine coach), and points further, to the record of 21 victories among all tournaments which Simeone himself scored between May 5, 2012 (2-1 against Málaga) and February 3, 2013 (1-0 against Betis) at the Vicente Calderón. Now, a decade later, he has 19 in the Metropolitano. He is already waiting for Lazio.

Iñaki Dufour

(c) EFE Agency