Man, talk about a game that people still argue about. Atlético Madrid vs RB Leipzig, the Champions League quarter-final from 2020. Everyone remembers the score, but nobody agrees on João Félix. Was he the golden boy stepping up, or did he drift out of the whole damn thing until he won the penalty? The debate was driving me nuts. I needed facts. I needed the timeline.
I wasn’t going to rely on some commentator’s opinion or some stat sheet from a random website that just counted goals and assists. I was going to watch every single minute of that game, specifically tracking what Félix did, where he was, and how much effort he actually put in. This whole obsessive project kicked off because of my neighbor, Steve. That guy is a menace.
Setting Up the War Room
Steve and I were bickering over coffee one morning about transfer valuations, and he just threw his hands up and yelled, “Félix is a passenger, man! He hides! That Leipzig game proves it, he only showed up for five minutes!” That really steamed me. I knew he had moments in that match, but Steve’s arrogance meant I had to prove him wrong, no matter how much time it took. I decided right then I was going to shut him up with irrefutable, ugly, minute-by-minute proof.
First step: I dug out the full match replay. It wasn’t high-def, and the audio was garbage, but it was the raw footage. I grabbed a massive spreadsheet—nothing fancy, just Excel—and I created columns. These columns were simple, designed for speed and clarity:
- Timestamp: Down to the nearest 30 seconds.
- Location: (A) Defensive Third, (M) Midfield, (O) Offensive Third.
- Action Type: (P) Pass Attempt, (T) Successful Take-on, (L) Loss of Possession, (D) Defensive Action/Pressure, (G) Goal Contribution Event.
- Note: A quick, rough summary of what happened.
I knew I couldn’t track everything, so I focused on the things Steve said he lacked: sustained effort and defensive contribution. I poured myself a big mug of coffee and started the clock.
The Logbook Grind
The process was brutal. I didn’t just watch it once; I watched sections in slow motion, pausing every time Félix moved significantly. For the first twenty minutes, I felt like Steve might be right. I logged a lot of ‘(M) P – sideways pass’ and ‘(M) D – weak press, stopped.’ Around the 17th minute, I noted his first real burst forward—a failed dribble, but at least he tried.
The first half was slow, man. I had to stop and stretch three times. Between the 25th and 40th minute, my sheet showed long stretches where Félix was barely touching the ball. He was high up, but the ball wasn’t coming to him. My notes were getting messy, things like: “35:00 – Looks bored. Just standing there watching Trippier.”
But the data started shifting right before halftime. In the last five minutes of the first half, I logged two solid defensive sprints back into the midfield to help defend a Leipzig transition. This wasn’t glamorous, but it was effort. I logged that as proof he wasn’t completely hiding.
The second half, however, was where the real work began. I rewound and replayed the opening 15 minutes of the second half four times. Why? Because Leipzig scored their first goal during that period, and I needed to know Félix’s role in the ensuing chaos. He wasn’t directly responsible for the goal, but he got visibly frustrated immediately after. My log showed him starting to drop deeper and demand the ball more after the 55th minute.
What the Timestamps Yelled At Me
My sheet, by the time I finished, was 250 rows long. It looked like a crazy person’s diary. But the picture was clearer than any pundit had painted.
I realized that Félix’s performance was not a constant upward line. It was like a choppy sea. He had these incredible, brief surges of energy followed by 10-minute dips where he was practically invisible. The raw numbers confirmed the narrative: he touched the ball far fewer times than Koke or Saul, but his touches were disproportionately high in the attacking third when they happened.
The turning point, the event everyone remembers, was logged perfectly:
- 68:00: (O) T – Beautiful turn past two defenders near the box. Gets clipped.
- 68:30: (G) Penalty awarded. Immediate massive pressure.
- 70:00: (G) GOAL. Coolly taken penalty by Félix himself. Huge impact.
He created that entire moment out of nothing. It wasn’t just luck; the timeline proved he had been trying to force those actions for about five minutes prior, dropping his shoulder, demanding the ball in tight spaces.
So, when I finally marched over to Steve’s house with my printed-out spreadsheet, what did I tell him? Did Félix play well? No, not consistently. He wasn’t a world-beater for 90 minutes. But I proved that when the team desperately needed a moment of brilliance, Félix was actively positioning himself, running, and demanding the ball to make it happen. He didn’t hide. He just needed one moment, and my meticulous, crazy timeline tracking proved he worked for it. I showed Steve the logs, he grumbled, and I finally got to enjoy my coffee in peace.