Let’s give a spherical of applause to Atletico Madrid, for essentially the most batshit exit from the Champions League, in addition to for signaling the tip of an period for his or her membership.
The Diego Simeone period very nicely might have run its course, as Atletico have appeared increasingly bereft of artistic concepts which is now not being balanced out by their customary defensive snarl and dedication. There was solely so lengthy that the membership might revolve round and succeed by harnessing the facility of Simeone’s figurative and generally literal center fingers, and we could also be there.
Atletico needed to beat a principally clueless Bayer Leverkusen to remain alive within the Champions League Wednesday. They have been principally terrible all through the match. They fell behind twice, although have been capable of Forrest Gump their technique to tie it twice. The match’s final motion was an Atletico nook, their final try and blow Bayer’s home down after 10 or 20 minutes of simply balloon-handed huffing and puffing. It glided by the wayside, and the ultimate whistle blew, besides VAR went trying to find perhaps essentially the most ridiculous handball name in current historical past:
Which meant the ref referred to as everybody again onto the sphere for a penalty, which Atletico managed to blow 3 times.
Now that’s the way you burn down all that’s left of what you’ve constructed over the previous decade. No gradual decay, full Nero, full Cersei. Chef’s kiss.
