• Bayer Leverkusen v Atletico Madrid, Tuesday, 11.45pm, BeIN Sports
On the hour, standard time for a manager to shake things up, Diego Simeone ordered his assistant to notify the fourth official of a change. Sporting Gijon, battling for survival in the Primera Liga, were stubbornly holding Simeone’s Atletico Madrid at 1-1. Cue the super-sub.
It is a while now that Kevin Gameiro has felt bittersweet about his reputation as a brilliant substitute, expert at turning the tide late in matches. The trouble with super-sub fame is it means spending too much of your professional life as bench-warmer.
In Gijon on Saturday, Gameiro surpassed even his own excellent standards as an after-the-hour alchemist. On 80 minutes, Gameiro’s neat turn and left-foot finish put Atletico ahead. Two minutes later, the points were sealed thanks to a precise drive by Gameiro. By the 86th minute, he had his hat-trick, chasing a long ball, using his speed, looking up briefly to calculate his angle, firing across the goalkeeper. Atletico had won 4-1, thanks to a man who had been on the field less than 30 minutes.
With that momentum, dare Simeone leave Gameiro out of his starting line-up for Tuesday’s Uefa Champions League last-16 first leg at Bayer Leverkusen? He might. The Frenchman Gameiro is so effective at late shows, so useful with his acceleration against tiring defences he will probably be forever be burdened with the tag of superb modern super-sub.
Leverkusen’s Javier Hernandez, alias “Chicharito”, knows how that feels. The Mexican has been competing in elite European competition for six and half years, racking up goals at the grandest clubs, namely Manchester United and Real Madrid. He moved to Germany 18 months ago because he wanted what those clubs could not offer, the promise that, at kick off, he would be more often readied around the centre-circle than tracksuited, waiting for his moment.
Gameiro, 29, and “Chicharito” – the nickname means “Little Pea”, and Hernandez, 28, gained it from his father, a Mexican player of renown, with pea-green eyes – are like ... well, they are like peas in a pod: short of stature, low centres-of-gravity, whooshing acceleration and fine poaching skills. Amd here is an eerie parallel: In this Bundesliga season, Chicharito has scored his 10 goals for Leverkusen – five in his last three outings - at a rate of one every 139 minutes. Gameiro’s Liga goals for Atletico - nine now, after the three at Gijon – have been scored at an average of every 138 minutes on the pitch.
Minutes on the pitch. So-called supersubs always aspire to more. After his first season at Leverkusen – 28 league games, only three from the bench, and 17 goals – Hernandez explained to FourFourTwo magazine, "Leverkusen want me on the field. United and Madrid did not so much, even though the numbers were there."
The numbers were: A Hernandez goal arrived, on average, every 122 minutes for Madrid in his one Liga campaign – and he only started seven fixtures. Over four Premier League seasons at United, the super-sub struck 37 goals, but played the full 90 minutes just 10 times.
For Hernandez, the label of “super-sub” jarred at the 2014 World Cup, when he was told his lack of club starts had jeopardised his place in Mexico’s first XI. Gameiro senses his international career with France suffered likewise. He had broken into his national team at the time he joined Paris Saint-Germain in 2011, when that club came into Qatari money and recruited several strikers. Gameiro kept scoring for PSG, but more and more often he scored from the bench.
His France career stalled, even after he joined Sevilla in 2013, where he thrived but again became known as Gameiro, gamechanger as often as Gameiro the starter. Last summer’s move to Atletico has seen him awarded more France caps, but Gameiro is still making, typically, one in every three club appearances from the bench.
With Sevilla, Gameiro won three successive Europa Leagues. He scored consistently, but only started one of the three finals. With Atletico, Gameiro hopes for a fourth successive European final, this time in the Champions League.
Hernandez, Premier League gold-medallist with United, World Club Cup winner with Madrid, would cherish any sort of cup with Leverkusen – because he would win it having played most of the 90 minutes.
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