Julián Álvarez prevents Atlético from being embarrassed by the cup

Strong emotions at the beginning of the last day of the first round in the Copa del Rey. Two giants like Atlético and Espanyol suffered to overcome in the final minutes their first obstacles in the KO tournament, the very modest Vic and San Tirso, both in the sixth category, the first regional step.

Atlético, ten-time Cup champions, sweated hard against the very modest Vic, a team from the town of the same name, in the province of Barcelona, ​​which plays in the Lliga Elit, the first Catalan regional category and sixth tier of Spanish football. With such recognizable players as Molina, Witsel, Gallagher, Riquelme, Correa and Sorloth in their starting eleven, the Colchonero team, which in the midst of negative dynamics of results was not up for unpleasant surprises, tried to impose logic through the fast track without success.

Vic endured the entire first half, dressed as Goliath to resist and even try to threaten with some counterattack, but the modest rebellion began to take on a worrying aspect for Atlético when after the hour mark the goalless tables continued to prevail in the duel to general surprise.

Simeone, seriously upset, even called on Griezmann, exhausting his changes with almost half an hour of play left. The matter pointed to red-and-white drama when Giuliano Simeone, who wasted energy without taking into account the status of his rival, forced the penalty with which Julián Álvarez avoided embarrassment. The Argentine attacker himself, a world champion, sentenced almost on the clock to definitively rule out a surprise of colossal proportions.

For its part, Espanyol, another classic cup winner with four trophies under its belt, lived up to expectations against San Tirso, a Galician Preferente team based in the A Coruña municipality of Abegondo that had to move the match to a first-class stage. level like Riazor. Although less than Atlético, the parakeet team also had to wait and be patient to open the can, with a missed penalty by Pere Milla in the first minutes. Only after the break was the blue and white team able to impose its law with a goal from Alejo Véliz that opened a closer tie than expected. Cardona and Véliz himself, who rounded off his particular hat-trick in stoppage time, closed the contest with a ultimately bulky result.

Thursday’s games:

Vic 0-2 Atlético

St. Tirsus 0-4 Spanish

Barbastro 4-0 Amorebieta