L: $32
H: $38
H: $37
L: $32
H: $38
L: $32
H: $37
L: $32
H: $36
L: $31
The Portuguese prodigy is the signing of the record of the Spanish national team, but his first season was full of potholes: he proved to be a player for the big stage.
At Benfica’s internship, south of the Tagus and some distance from the center of Lisbon, a familiar face made the impression on Tuesday.
Still childish, Joao Félix has evolved a lot since it is his daily trade and Benfica has known him as the highest talented teenager they have noticed in many years.
Champions League predictions: Messi follows Barcelona, City qualifies for semi-finals
Cinderella’s team faces the wealthy princes as Atalanta faces Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League
Delay in the Champions League with Atletico Madrid reporting two cases of coronavirus
Atletico has borrowed Benfica’s educational floor from the Seixal striker from the Quarterfith quarter-finals of Thursday night against RB Leipzig in Lisbon. Although closed-door situations around the improvised conclusion of the Champions League mean that Felix’s home is diminished, there is some fascination with the role that the 20-year-old prodigy will play.
It turns out that he is responding to the high level of his home country: last summer he debuted abroad, in Porto, in the top competition of the UEFA League of Nations, and helped Portugal win the prize.
It’s been a bit bumpy ever since. The signing of Atletico’s record carried not only with the weight of a big tax at a tender age, but also the responsibility, in part, for the replacement of Antoine Griezmann, a wonderful atletico match for Barcelona.
Felix started quite well with insinuations that, in Atletico’s most beloved team of all time, he may be the key guy in a cautious and counter-attacking taste replacement that has become his trademark with Diego Simeone. Felix can dazzle with the ball, preferably betting next to an important striker.
Felix’s first season asked him for a lot and interrupted by injury. His 8-goal kickback in 35 games, between competitions, seems narrow along with the 20 he has accumulated in what was his first crusade as a senior player, 2018-19, with Benfica.
It looks slight next to Griezmann’s record at an austere, low-scoring Atletico: the Frenchman always hit 20 goals, at least. But it looks less bland when you note that by far Atletico’s top scorer this term is Alvaro Morata with his 16 from 32.
There have been periods of lean cows for everyone. At one point, 2014 La Liga champion Atlético struggled to finish in the four most sensitive.
After the resumption of football in June, they joined, helping to overcome the fact that in their rearview mirror it was a normal night at Anfield.
Back to the wall, the family and physically powerful Atletico beat Liverpool 3-2 in the extra time, getting rid of the least defeated club of the Champions League season.
Felix played a component in this epic comeback, but his hero Marcos Llorente, the incredibly reinvented midfielder as a goalscorer. Llorente’s contributions to Atletico’s unbeaor 18-game streak, helping them reach 3rd place in La Liga, made him a more likely starter against Leipzig than Felix.
In the absence of Angel Correa, who tested positive for Covid-19 this weekend (he is asymptomatic) and therefore did not do so with Portugal, the winger Yannick Carrasco is also the favorite for a spot in Simeone’s XI.
Felix could well start on the bench of Lisbon, a city that has a special resonance for others on the athletic field. It was at the Estadio da Luz in 2014, where Simeone guided Atlético to the discount time for the club’s first European Cup, denied through a last purpose by Sergio Ramos, and then 3 more heartbreaking purposes of Real Madrid in addition.
For players like Koke, the captain, and Diego Costa, the injured limping striker early in the night, Lisbon will stimulate bittersweet memories. Two years later, she lost some other Champions League final in Milan, also against Real Madrid, and also in extremis, beaten on penalties.