Atletico of Madrid said good-bye to the 06-07 King’s Cup at Reyno of Navarra stadium after suffering a defeat against Osasuna 2-0. The red and white team wasn’t the strong team usually is playing away and they hardly worried the rival during the ninety minutes, an Osasuna that, since the goal by Puñal, knew how to read the match on every moment, managing the time and seeming unbeatable for an Atleti that was never comfortable in order to develop their game.

The aim of the local team since the beginning of the match was clear, to drown the rival game at midfield by means of a suffocating pressure. The red team did it brilliantly blocking the way out of the ball from midfield, in which Luccin and Maniche had lot of problems to keep the possession of the ball. Javier Aguirre’s players got tangled in the web spinned by ‘Cuco’ Ziganda for this match and couldn’t find how to get away of the Navarra’s Team play. In spite of all, the red and white players tried to react and Fernando Torres looked for Ricardo’s area in a personal action, but the pass by number ‘9’ from the right side didn’t find a striker.

16 minutes had passed when Puñal acted and settled to Atletico the first cut: The player from Navarra sent a strong shot to the top right-hand corner of the goal from inside the area and Pichu couldn’t do anything to stop it. The knockout competition was getting harder for a team that went to Pamplona with the obligation to score at least one goal to be at classified. Shortly afterwards Soldado looked for the second one with a shot that left high, but it was Puñal who increased differences scoring a penalty made by Seitaridis to Corrales.

With a lot of time left Atletico didn’t want to resign before time and looked for a goal to feel again in the match, mainly through foul kick plays, and side luck wasn’t on their side. The goal could come when the ball pass in front of Ricardo’s line, but neither Torres nor Mista achieved to hit the ball to the end of the net.

Aguirre opted to reinforce the red and white line up after the break, entering ‘Kun’ Agüero instead of Mista and Jurado looking for touch instead of Antonio Lopez. The recipe worked at first, since the Argentinian made a header at the small area after a pass by Pernia that didn’t found the goal. The winger tried it also a little bit later sending the ball to the crossbar in a foul kick very that went very close to the bottom line. Against the red and white danger the red players reacted and they knew how to kill the match, hiding the ball to their rival and getting the most of continuous fast breaks to let the time run.

The match entered into a useless phase in which the tactical duel was the owner of the game, keeping the ball far away of the danger zones. Only Nekouman and Galletti tried to break that dynamic with two shots, but both ones left away from the goal. Finally it was just time to increase pressure to the players of both teams and Atletico got close to the red wall, concentrated to stop the game until the end of the match.

The end of the match wrote the elimination of an Atletico of Madrid in a match in which they never felt comfortable and weren’t able to develop the usual game that made them fearful as visitor. The red and white team is concentrated now in the League as the only option to obtain a place at Europe next season.


Photo: www.clubatleticodemadrid.com