Not so long ago, at the start of this season just five months ago, Antoine Griezmann was a local at the Camp Nou defending the colors of Barcelona. Now, with the Atlético de Madrid shirt, the french forward is making progress in recovering from his injury with the aim of being ready for his reunion with the azulgrana coliseum on sunday 6 february.
A muscle injury to his right thigh suffered in the December 12 derby against Real Madrid, in which he relapsed after playing half an hour of play in the Copa del Rey match against Rayo Majadahonda -in which he had scored a goal for the final 0-5-, has left him out of seven of the last eight official duels with the red and white squad.
This Wednesday, with eleven days to go before the visit to what was still his stadium in August, Griezmann once again exercised with the ball on the pitch at the red and white sports city. At the moment alone, but with time to return to group work, this week or next.
Atlético needs the offensive contribution of the French ‘Little Prince’. In the seven games he has been on the sidelines, the rojiblanco team has lost four, drawn one and only won two. In total he has received twelve goals, and has scored ten. A negative streak that was already in force with Griezmann on the field -he was in the defeats against Mallorca (1-2) and Real Madrid (2-0)-, but that has deepened while Atlético did not have his contest .
Even more so when the French player, who made an irregular return to the red-and-white squad in which, in his first stage, he scored 133 goals in 257 games during five years, I began to find better sensations: with goals in November against Valencia (3-3), Cádiz (1-4, and an assist) and with a goal and an assist in the vital 1-2 in Porto with which Atlético qualified for the League quarterfinals of Champions.
His return to the Camp Nou It will not be his first confrontation with his former team. He already participated in the 2-0 of the Wanda Metropolitano to the azulgrana team, then directed by Ronald Koeman, against whom he played the last quarter of an hour. At that time, Atlético was going through a very different moment: equal to 17 points at the top of the table with Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, and their difference in game and classification with Barcelona seemed abysmal.
A single point separates Barça and Atlético in LaLiga
Now it is not like that. Atletico and azulgranas are separated by just one point: Atlético marks the last position in the Champions League with 36 units, and Barcelona is one point behind, both with 21 games played. Very far in any case from the 50 points of the leader, Real Madrid, who keep a colossal booty even with one more game.
The comeback against Valencia at the Wanda Metropolitano (3-2) softens the rojiblanca game crisis -which in one week missed out on two competitions, the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey- and allows the pupils to work more calmly of the Argentine coach Diego Pablo Simeone, without the six American internationals nor the goalkeeper Jan Oblak, isolated by coronavirus.
Nor were the injured, in addition to Griezmann, Marcos Llorente and Geoffrey Kondogbia, nor the Brazilian central defender Felipe Monteiro due to an indisposition. The rojiblanco team trusts that these two weeks without competition will allow them to recover some cash. Starting with Griezmann, who already points to the visit that was his home: the Camp Nou.