Copa del Rey: In the Cup of Kings, Madrid’s lost prince comes alive

Atletico triumph 4-2 on aggregate to set up Barcelona date

KARACHI: A lot has changed since Fernando Torres left his boyhood club. He had departed as his generation’s golden boy, he returned as a perceived spent force. One thing that hadn’t changed in his beloved city of Madrid though, was the Santiago Bernabeu. And on a wet rainy night, as Torres returned to the footballing cathedral that his team’s bitter rivals call home, it all came flooding back to him.

It was just over 30 seconds into the match that Antoine Griezmann turned Pepe to leave him for dead. The Frenchman then centred the ball for Torres — inexplicably left unmarked by Sergio Ramos — to clinically curl the ball into the top corner on the first time with his left foot.

It took Torres all of 47 seconds to put the tie to bed with his first goal on his return. Madrid needed to score four in order to make it into the next round and despite Ramos scoring in the 20^th minute, the Blancos still needed three more in the second half.

But the second half started just like the first one; with Torres wheeling away in celebration inside the first minute. Again it was Griezmann who was the architect, intercepting Ramos’ cross-field pass and sliding it to Torres. This time around the Spaniard had even more to do; first he cut onto his right foot, leaving a desperately lunging Pepe on his backside, before sliding the ball off Keylor Navas’ foot into the back of the net.

The match was supposed to be about Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo but so clinical had Torres been that when Ronaldo, almost invariably, got his name on the score sheet in the 54^th minute, neither player nor team celebrated. Instead, they just trudged back to their own half without much urgency; the tie was over and they knew it.

The 30-year-old was replaced soon after but he had stamped his mark on the match like he had been unable to do since he had donned the red, first at Atletico and then at Liverpool.

It has been a strange career for Torres. He has won the Euros twice, as well the Champions League, the Europa League and the World Cup. He was captain of Atletico at the age of 19, he was the fastest player to reach 50 league goals for Liverpool, he scored the winner in the 2008 Euro final that heralded Spain’s dominance in international competitions, he was the golden boot winner in the 2012 Euros and he is Spain’s most capped striker. Yet he arrives at the Vicente Calderon with a point to prove. A £50 million failure of a striker, discarded first by Chelsea and then by AC Milan. Once feared and respected, now rejected and ridiculed.

For two years Torres had captained Simeone at Atletico, now — despite all that Torres has done over the years — the Argentine is his final hope of redeeming a career that looked over for all intents and purposes.

On Thursday, the striker rekindled a flame that had seemed extinguished for far too long. He must kick on from here. Torres has returned home and it looks like his class has followed him back.

 

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.