Atletico Madrid again brought Antoine Griezmann after 60th minute despite Barcelona’s threat of lawsuit

Atletico Madrid again brought Antoine Griezmann after 60th minute despite Barcelona’s threat of lawsuit

In the summer of 2021, Antoine Griezmann returned to Atletico Madrid, rejoining Diego Simeone’s squad on a two-year loan agreement that would most likely turn into a €40 million permanent transfer.

Due to a provision in the loan agreement, the Madrid Club will only be responsible for paying that sum if the Frenchman participates in at least half of the team’s matches and records at least 45 minutes of action, excluding stoppage time or extra time. Barcelona is also concerned about the manager of Atletico being instructed not to use Griezmann this year in order to avoid paying the transfer cost.

The 31-year-old striker, who was an important part of Atletico’s team last year, has played in La Liga games so far this year for 28, 28, 26 and 27 minutes, coming on at the hour mark each time. The same thing happened when Porto visited the Spanish club’s home stadium on Wednesday night for their Champions League opener.

At 0-0 in the 61st minute, Griezmann was introduced into the game. Nine minutes of second-half stoppage time were played, during which Mario Hermoso gave the hosts the lead until Mateus Uribe tied the score from the penalty spot on minute 96 due to Medhi Taremi’s red card and an injury.

Just when it appeared like the teams would split the points after five minutes, Griezmann came up at the back post from a corner to head in his team’s winning goal.

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Atletico Madrid have used the same tactics in La Liga as well this weekend

atletico Madrid Antoine Griezmann

Simeone then used the same approach to help his club defeat Celta Vigo 4-1 in La Liga on Saturday. Griezmann appeared for fewer than 30 minutes once more as the 2020/21 champions secured the three points with goals from Angel Correa, Rodrigo De Paul, Yannick Carrasco, and an own goal.

Barcelona has already informed Atletico, though, that they believe they are already owed the money for Griezmann’s transfer, according to SPORT. This is because the third-highest goal scorer in France played 80% of the games he was scheduled to play last season, despite the Catalan giants’ claims that the loan agreement was only for one year, with the second year only taking effect if he played 50% of them.

According to Barca, Atleti already owes them €40 million, thus it doesn’t matter how long Griezmann plays in each game.  Barcelona president Joan Laporta and his legal staff are reportedly planning a lawsuit in the event that their adversaries refuse to pay them for the permanent transfer, which might cause problems for the Madrid team.

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