Fernando Torres can blossom at Atletico Madrid the same way Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa, Radamel Falcao

Being substituted before the hour and having a whole stadium boo you as you go off does not usually bring a smile to a player’s face but Fernando Torres could not stop himself from grinning on Thursday night.

It was the same smile he wore when he spoke after the game about the moment he was hooked after 57 minutes and 80,000 Real Madrid fans let their feelings towards him known. They had taunted him for years because he had only ever scored one goal against them now they were upset because he had just dumped them out of the Copa del Rey.

‘It was the smile of satisfaction at having done my job,’ he said as he left the Santiago Bernabeu feeling better about his career than he has since his Liverpool days. Torres is back finding the net after struggling to do so at Stamford Bridge and the San Siro and he is not the first striker to benefit from a spell at the Vicente Calderon.Atletico Madrid is where good young strikers go to become great and to save a dying career there really is no place like the Vicente Calderon. For Torres, there really is no place like home.

He has now scored two goals against Real Madrid in a week. That is two more than he scored against them in six years in his previous spell. Little wonder despite having been taken off early on Thursday night, he couldn’t stop smiling.


Culled from Dailymail