On his return to matches with Atletico Madrid, after the World Cup where he made a good impression, despite the news of his supposed desire to leave in January in the middle, Joao Felix shone and his team won, allowing him to draw between Betis. Athletic Bilbao to face the champions.

The opponent was Elche and the match was in Civitas Metropolitano. Therefore, there are two aspects that gave the supporters a positive feeling with a good farewell to 2022, a year that did not leave much nostalgia in the world of the colchoneros, even if not everyone – Nahuel, de Paul and Correa were honored before the opening whistle, due to winning the world title for Argentina.

João Felix was in the starting line-up and formed the attacking front with Griezmann and Morata. Goals ran through them (we’ll get to that), but also a lot of first-half creativity, which was practically one-way, with no practical effects. Atlético attacked a lot, many times well, but it always ended badly, with many balls that came very close.

This could have been a cause for concern, but Verdoux’s dismissal before half-time for holding Morata when he was in a good position (still a debatable decision) kept confidence high in the first half.

He had everything to be a good tonic, which he emptied himself soon after, seeing Hermoso two yellow cards in a short time and leaving the game in the 53rd minute, with 10 on each side. However, this side was not deterred by the coaches, who would reach the goal shortly thereafter, through Joao Felix, in a movement on the right assisted by Griezmann to head the Portuguese.

Joao Felix, a lot of crack 🔥

🇪🇸 @employee | @tweet 1 x 0 @employee# legeline pic.twitter.com/ZPDLu4wEou

– ELEVEN Portugal (ElevenSports_PT) December 29, 2022

Later, when Elche tried to fight back, Morata successfully completed a counterattack with his fellow Frenchman and ended the suspicions. That’s already with Felix on the bench – 66 minutes arrived to be, later, man of the match for the achievement.

From the bench, Domingos saw Quina play, she turned yellow, and shortly after that, he was sent off for a hard tackle on an opponent. The Portuguese also proved his strict, even if somewhat reckless, standards of refereeing.