Atlético host Barça in Copa del Rey, Álvarez and pitch in focus | OneFootball

After seeing their hopes of winning the LaLiga title practically evaporate in February, Atlético de Madrid hosts Barcelona on Thursday in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals, with Julián Álvarez and the pitch under scrutiny.

In a packed stadium, where the club has sold almost all tickets, fans are hoping that the Argentine striker, who hasn’t scored in the Spanish Championship for 101 days, will finally end his drought.

Since November 1, ‘La Araña’ hasn’t found the back of the net. On that day, he converted a penalty against Sevilla in his team’s 3-0 win at the ‘rojiblancos’ stadium, and hasn’t celebrated a goal since.

Although he scored days later in the Champions League, against PSV Eindhoven on December 9, the 26-year-old failed to score in the 1-1 draw against Galatasaray in Turkey, and in the 2-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt at the Metropolitano, both matches played at the end of January.

Despite his drop in performance, Álvarez remains a star in Diego Simeone’s squad, who continues to reinforce his position. However, something has changed.

Fewer minutes

The Argentine, who returned to the starting lineup after an illness that kept him out of the previous Copa del Rey match against Betis, was substituted at halftime in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to the same team at the Metropolitano.

And in the previous LaLiga round, which ended in a goalless draw against Levante at the Ciutat de Valencia, the ‘Albiceleste’ player came off the bench.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to keep commenting on Julián,” said Simeone after being questioned about the player at the post-match press conference.

“We trust him, he’s extremely important, the best we have. We hope he’ll give us even more in the important moments to come,” emphasized the Argentine coach.

One of those moments will already be this Thursday, in the Copa del Rey, a tournament in which he has yet to score, against Barça, who are in great form after beating Mallorca 3-0 at Camp Nou on Saturday and maintaining the lead in LaLiga, although they are just one point ahead of Real Madrid.

Additionally, Simeone will have the newly signed Nigerian striker Ademola Lookman, who scored his first goal for Atlético de Madrid on his Copa del Rey debut.

The pitch is under fire

Another issue raised is the condition of the Metropolitano pitch. After the victory at La Cartuja in Seville, Frenchman Antoine Griezmann praised the pitch and criticized Atlético de Madrid’s. “Ours doesn’t help much, it makes our game harder,” said the striker after the match.

This criticism only grew when captain Koke complained about the same problem three days later, after the defeat to Manuel Pellegrini’s team.

“We slip, the grass comes up. A team like Atlético de Madrid needs a pitch in good condition to play. We’re expected to play at a high level and, for that, we need a high-level pitch,” Koke told Movistar+.

The Metropolitano pitch was replaced in November, after a training session by the Miami Dolphins, an NFL team. Since then, the weather conditions—cold, snow, ice, and rain—haven’t helped its preservation.

Simeone, for his part, played down the issue. “I’m not a player. They’re the ones playing and they know best. Football has always been played on good, normal, regular pitches. It wasn’t a match we lost because of the state of the pitch,” he said when questioned.

In the other semifinal, Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad face each other this Wednesday in the Basque derby at San Mamés.

The team led by coach Ernesto Valverde comes into the match on a high after beating Levante 4-2 at home, which took them to tenth place in the table, while Real Sociedad is enjoying its best form of the season after beating Barcelona and climbing to eighth place in LaLiga.

*With content from AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.