Because playing more costs money that Atletico don't have. The reason, as you probably already know, is simple: he doesn't play more because he can't play more. And these are people, remember.Īround the 60th minute, everyone's waiting for it now. It has become a kind of running joke, a meme, although it's not always that funny for those involved. A blunt, unsubtle message designed to be inescapable. Not least because they want you to: this is a message as well as a substitution. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)Īgainst Getafe, Griezmann came on in the 62nd minute. Despite being restricted to playing a limited number of minutes at Atletico Madrid, Griezmann is scoring crucial goals for Simeone's side. It's literally all written there, in black and white - even if some see shades of grey. It is illogical, but relentlessly logical. And how two men (and the rest) try to make the best of it. Only, it makes total sense, like some parable of modern football, a portrait of the problems two clubs face, a morality tale featuring the mess they have made of things. Atletico Madrid have played five games this season, and Griezmann has not started any of them. The man who is a World Cup winner, and probably their best player, their best-paid player. So wait, let's get this straight: The man who is one of the most important players in Atletico's history. That might sound a bit silly, which is partly because it is. It was scored by the man who always comes on as a sub. More than it being the man who had come on as a sub. More than the man who scored it, in his manager's words, being 'one of the most important players in Atletico's history' (now there's a debate). More than the goal that gave them a first home win in this competition for 680 days - yes, really. This was more than just a goal later than any they had ever seen. There was no time left, and anyway: what would be the point? It was perfect this way, everyone knew. They were into the 11th minute of added time, and the goal was the last touch. But everyone knew it was late, very late. Not in the stadium, it hadn't, where it had stopped at 90 because of a rule - which, admittedly, slightly obsesses this writer because it's so absurd - that says fans can't be trusted with knowing how much time they have actually been playing. The clock had shown 100.19 when it got there. Sources: Barca to sue Atleti over Griezmann fee.If Griezmann didn't know before - which is pretty implausible given everything that had happened, all the conversations they had had, the pacts they had forged - he did now. 'I love him he knows the affection I have for him,' Simeone would say later when he had calmed down a little. When he got there, he pushed his way through the crowd, grabbed Griezmann by the face, laid their heads together and, looking him in the eyes, screamed something, holding him hard. As a crowd of players grabbed him and everyone went wild, Simeone sprinted from the bench to reach them, skidding round the corner.

He turned and dashed across the south end of the Metropolitano, looking up at all the limbs in the stand, pulling at the badge on his shirt. A corner was nodded on by Axel Witsel, and Griezmann was there to score at the far post. 'This will be the last chance,' the commentator said, and it was.

Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, more (U.S.) Not just any winner Antoine Griezmann had headed in the latest winning goal anyone had ever scored in the competition. After no goals in 90 minutes, for only the second time in Champions League history, three had been scored in added time: a 92nd-minute winner for Atletico that turned out not to be a winner at all, a 96th-minute Porto equaliser via a penalty committed by the man who had scored that 'winner' and then, an actual winner in the 101st. If the game had been as bad as you might imagine, added time was better than you ever could. Well, him and the man he was now sprinting towards wanting to embrace, to share this moment with. How well the plan had come together - better than even he had dared imagine. He knew better than anyone just how big this was, how much of a release, what it really meant, and what lay behind it. And who could blame him for losing his head? A little uneasily in that suit and those shoes, sliding slightly as he headed down the touchline, but he was. Suddenly, Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone was up and running.

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