When at last the battle was over, the Little Prince picked up his shield, their shield that they had fought for, and raised it to the dark night sky. If a picture tells a story, try this one from Denis Doyle late on Sunday night, something epic in it, football made film, a gift: Antoine Griezmann and the grand gesture. A cliche, sure, yet cinematic too, a poster for the premiere and possibly even planned, overblown the way it’s supposed to be. Taken from the final scene, The End and also a beginning, another saga starting. “We go together,” the Frenchman said. “This is the path towards dreaming something big.”
With 93 minutes gone against Sevilla, a man falling at his feet, Griezmann turned and smashed a shot in off the bar, victory secured at the last with the 5,000th goal in the club’s history, From 3-1 down, Atlético were now 4-3 up, heading to victory while their opponents slipped to their knees. As the ball bounced back out the net, Alexander Sørloth sent it sailing over the bar and into the north stand and Griezmann ran west, throwing his shirt almost as high. It floated and fell, then he gathered it from the field. Now he stood in the wind, blond hair swept back, a little Legolas, red against a black sky, shield raised, sleeves like ribbons around it.
