2023-12-04 00:52:45
For Joao Félix the game was a personal matter. It was an opportunity to show that he would have to look elsewhere for the person responsible for his failure to succeed at Atlético. Simeone said before facing Barcelona that “a game is a game” and that the important thing is continuity. That will have to be measured later. Griezmann said that Joao doesn’t like to wear himself out in defense. And even in that he applied himself. They even gave him a yellow card for grabbing Correa when he went to recover a ball near his area.
Joao had as much desire to play a good game against the team he still belongs to as some of his teammates seemed to have. Even the red and white fans who traveled to Montjuïc. From the red and white sector they shouted “Joao, stay.” And Joao does everything possible to make Barcelona want him to stay next season.
Joao’s response was to blow a kiss to his former fans when he scored after climbing on an advertising billboard to celebrate. The Uruguayan Giménez tried to take revenge on his own feet. And also with the hands. “Do you want a fight?” He told him at one point during the game while Koke tried to calm him down. “He wants you to get the second yellow,” the captain told him, as captured by the Movistar+ cameras. The referee, Sánchez Martínez, had to mediate a corner so that things did not escalate between them.
Joao put on the field what was expected of Griezmann. His paths cross. When the Frenchman went to Barcelona, the Portuguese arrived at Atlético. And now that Griezmann is once again fundamental in the red and white team, Joao is looking for his place in Barcelona and receives the whistles from the Atlético fans just as the Frenchman received them before.
Joao Félix left the field smiling. He was happy when the referee whistled the end of the match. For Griezmann the feeling was different. He left frustrated, without showing anything that he has done during the last year, one of the best players in the world.
His frustration led him to take away a foul from Memphis on the edge of the area when the Dutchman had just sent a shot from the top corner that Iñaki Peña’s hand deflected onto the crossbar.
The winner of the match was Joao Félix, who received several kicks from his former teammates. He also claimed a penalty for a stomp by Mario Hermoso when he had already finished.
“I have nothing against them,” he said after his former teammates’ game. «I get along well with almost everyone. “I love you very much,” he added, after ensuring that he had had a difficult summer.
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