After returning from Zurich, Atlético Madrid's next match was the second leg of the Copa del Rey fifth round against Getafe.
Before the winter break, Atlético had already won 3-0 at home. This time, playing away, Simeone declined to field a full-strength lineup. Shane, Griezmann, Costa, and several other key players were all on the bench.
The match ended 0-0. Neither side scored.
Atlético Madrid advanced to the Copa del Rey quarterfinals, where their next opponent would be Real Betis.
Because the winter break had compressed the calendar, the post-break schedule became unusually dense.
Less than three days after that cup match, Atlético Madrid played Matchday 19 of the league season.
The opponent: Zaragoza, at the Vicente Calderón.
In this match, Shane recorded neither a goal nor an assist. But both of Atlético's goals in the 2-0 victory came from his long-range passing.
With that result, the first half of the La Liga season was officially complete.
After 19 league matches, Atlético Madrid had compiled 18 victories and 1 draw, accumulating 55 points and sitting at the top of the table.
Barcelona, meanwhile, had 16 victories, 2 draws, and 1 defeat, collecting 50 points and sitting in second place.
This left the entire Spanish media in shock.
"Are Atlético Madrid actually going to win the league with 110 points?" some analysts exclaimed.
But in reality, that was highly unlikely.
Because the second half of the season is denser, more brutal, and far less forgiving. And when the schedule compresses, the first problem to emerge is injury.
After Matchday 19 ended, Atlético Madrid's next match came less than 48 hours later. They had to travel away to face Real Betis in the Copa del Rey.
After careful consideration, Simeone decided to rotate part of the squad. He didn't fully replace the starting lineup. Instead, he fielded a mix: half starters, half rotational players.
But Atlético Madrid's luck in this match was catastrophically bad.
First, in the 7th minute, a Betis cross deflected off Godín and into Atlético's own net. Godín had scored an own goal.
Then, three minutes later, midfielder Gabi collapsed to the grass without any contact. Hamstring strain.
Simeone was forced into an emergency substitution. Mario Suárez came on.
Near the end of the first half, Shane attacked the ball inside the penalty area and scored the equalizer, pulling Atlético back to 1-1.
But immediately after the second half began, Raúl García committed a tactical foul and received his second yellow card of the match. Red card. Sent off.
Ultimately, playing with a one-man advantage, Real Betis defeated Atlético Madrid 2-1 at home.
It was Atlético's first defeat of the season.
Across the football world, a massive number of observers quietly exhaled in relief.
Atlético Madrid had finally lost.
Roughly fifty hours after that defeat, Atlético Madrid had to travel again, this time for an away match against Levante.
Levante currently occupied sixth place in the league. Over the previous several seasons, they had maintained a stable position in the upper half of the table.
Now, at home, facing an Atlético Madrid side that had just been wounded, many media outlets, including the primary propaganda arms aligned with Barcelona and Real Madrid, desperately wanted to see Levante pull off an upset and derail Atlético's momentum.
The result disappointed them.
In the 27th minute, Shane executed a perfectly weighted vertical pass, allowing Griezmann to finish with a goal.
Then, in the 63rd minute, Shane took a free kick from the right side of the attacking area. Godín redirected the ball with a far-post header, and Koke completed the sequence with a second header in the center, nodding the ball into the net.
Atlético Madrid's unbeaten league record remained intact.
But three days later, in the Copa del Rey, they defeated Real Betis 2-1 at home, leveling the aggregate score at 3-3 and forcing the tie into a penalty shootout.
In the shootout, Atlético Madrid was eliminated by Real Betis.
And after that match ended, the Atlético injury list grew again. Two more players were added.
Starting center-back Godín and midfielder Koke both suffered injuries in training.
Godín's injury was relatively minor. His recovery window was approximately two weeks.
Koke, however, would be out for at least four weeks. Whether he could return in time for the upcoming Champions League clash with AC Milan was suddenly a deeply uncertain variable.
As the team was already under pressure, the storm intensified.
League Matchday 21.
Atlético Madrid traveled away to face Athletic Bilbao and suffered a 2-3 defeat.
Shane scored one goal and provided one assist in the match. It still wasn't enough to prevent the loss.
"Atlético Madrid has finally started losing."
The Catalan media erupted with delight.
Barcelona won in the same round, cutting the point gap to just two.
"Barcelona has reduced the gap to a single match's worth of points. As long as they defeat Atlético Madrid away from home, they can still reclaim the league title."
"Atlético Madrid's weaknesses are finally being exposed. As the second half of the season grows denser, player stamina is dropping and the injury wave is expanding. The fragility of Atlético's bench is now obvious to everyone."
"Now that Koke, Gabi, and Godín are all injured, Atlético Madrid is already struggling for depth. Any Atlético supporter must be asking the same question: what happens if Shane gets injured too?"
"This is not an impossible scenario. Up to this point in the season, Shane has played in almost every match. He has completed all 21 league matches, 4 Copa del Rey fixtures, 5 Champions League group-stage matches, and has also played all 4 national team matches across two international breaks. In barely half a season, he has already played 34 full matches. Do not forget, this is still a player who has not yet reached 19 years of age."
"Atlético Madrid is too dependent on Shane. Three injured starters have already caused them to collapse away to Athletic Bilbao. If Shane goes down as well, what happens then?"
One week earlier, the media was broadcasting that Atlético Madrid was invincible.
One week later, those same outlets were describing Atlético as a giant ship already taking on water. A vessel that could capsize at any moment.
Time advanced into February.
And the first match of February just so happened to be against Real Betis, the same team that had recently eliminated Atlético from the Copa del Rey.
This fixture attracted enormous attention. Because the football world wanted to see whether Atlético, after tasting defeat, would continue to decay exactly as the Catalan media had predicted.
The result was devastating.
Playing away from home, Atlético Madrid produced an overwhelmingly dominant performance. They controlled almost the entire match.
Shane scored one goal and provided two assists, helping Atlético destroy the opponent 4-0 away from home.
One week later, returning to their home stadium, Atlético Madrid secured a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano.
The turbulence of the preceding days was gradually overwritten by victory.
City of Milan.
Milanello training complex.
AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri paused the playback of the tactical footage.
The image froze on Shane Carter's celebration after scoring.
Allegri turned his head and addressed his surrounding assistants.
"Twenty-three league matches. Twenty-one goals. Seventeen assists." He paused briefly. "All right, gentlemen. That is the player we are about to face."
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