Antoine Griezmann and Julián Álvarez are emerging as the reference duo for Atlético de Madrid in recent months, and between them they are carrying the offensive weight of the team, managing to score 12 goals in the last six games played by the colchonero team in all competitions .
Atlético de Madrid is one of the fittest teams in Europe today. Diego Pablo Simeone’s men have won ten consecutive victories in all competitions, and have not lost a game since last October 27, against Real Betis at the Benito Villamarín. A streak of victories that has had Griezmann and ‘La Araña’ as the main protagonists.
The Argentine arrived at the Metropolitano last summer with the reputation of a star signing and was called to be the leader of Atlético. However, the start of the season, with hardly any preseason for the Copa América and the Olympic Games, cost him, and his record in his first 10 red and white games was poor, scoring only two goals. But something changed in ‘La Araña’ in the month of October. The Argentine began to have continuity in Simeone’s lineups and responded to the coach’s confidence with play and, above all, goals.
Antoine Griezmann didn’t have the start to the season that Antoine Griezmann dreamed of either. In the third season after his return to the banks of the Manzanares, the Frenchman alternated lights and shadows in the first months of the season, in which, despite scoring four goals and distributing five assists in 16 games – until the Champions League match against PSG–, his game did not quite find brilliance, being relegated to the substitute position on more than one occasion.
But the duel against Real Betis, in which the colchoneros hit rock bottom, served as a turning point for the team. As if by magic, the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together, and the Griezmann-Álvarez partnership emerged, and Vic, Mallorca, Sparta de Prague, Real Valladolid, Cacereño, Sevilla and Slovan de Bratislava have suffered it firsthand. Between them, they have scored 15 goals since last October 31, two more than the Robert Lewandowski-Raphinha duo, and four more than Harry Kane-Jamal Musiala and Jude Bellingham-Vinícius Jr.
Julián Álvarez has scored 10 goals in the last 14 games, eight of them during the streak of 10 consecutive victories, also contributing an assist. In total, he has 12 goals and two assists in all competitions, making him Atlético de Madrid’s top scorer.
The ‘Little Prince’ is in an absolute state of grace. With his double against Slovan Bratislava, Griezmann has seven goals in his last five games. A streak in which he has scored five games, something he has not achieved since January 2019, also with the red and white shirt. In total, the number of goals throughout the season now amounts to 11, placing him as the team’s second top scorer.
Furthermore, the man from Macon continues to be the greatest generator of mattress play in the final third and there are now six assists he has given to his teammates so far this season. A fact that, in addition to being the best of an athletic player this season in this section, makes him the Colchonero player who has participated in the most goals (17).