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By Cillian Shields l @pile_de_eggs
If they went back to basics last week to beat Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid really invoked their 2013/14 version by claiming a 1-0 win over Valencia on Saturday. For most of this season, Diego Simeone’s charges have not been seen as a team in the same mold as his team of seven years ago that won the La Liga title, they are much more expansive and attacking this year, but the way of victory over the unpredictable The Che It was like what so many champions saw in the past.
Valencia have been spiraling into their own troubles this season, but they remain a team that shows admirable determination and togetherness. The actions of the boss Javi Gracia must rise when it comes to judging the work he is doing, given the extremely difficult circumstances in which he is working. While they have proven capable of being beaten by the smaller teams in the league, they can also take down the champions just a couple of weeks later. Saturday was one of their good days where they formed a more than formidable rival for the colchoneros.
Valencia created little to worry Atleti and a 0-0 would have gone perfectly well for them. Fbref shows that the expected goals in the match were 0.1 for Valencia compared to 0.8 for Atleti. Gracia’s side leaned back and tried to soak up the pressure, placing the responsibility of Atleti going out and playing with the ball, while Luis Suárez and Diego Costa are missing due to injury, and with two of their most explosive players: Joao Félix and Yannick Carrasco – starting at the bank.
The opportunities were difficult to obtain for the Madrid team. Captain Daniel Wass was involved up and down the field, central defenders Gabriel Paulista and Hugo Guillamón (replaced by Eliaquim Mangala in the 57th minute) remained strong and disciplined, and Uroš Račić fought excellently in the middle. Jaume Domenech was also solid on goal, reaching out to deflect two long shots from Lemar in the first half. Valencia did everything possible to frustrate a team better than them, and one more day they would have scored the point that could easily have been deserved.
However, Atleti did not give up on asking Valencia different questions. When a system did not work, Simeone changed things and changed the way. Finally Félix and Carrasco entered, as did Kondogbia to face the side he left just a couple of weeks ago, and Atleti’s form went to 3-5-2 during the second half, with Carrasco and Trippier operating as wingers. The Englishman performed seven shot-creating actions in the game, more than any other player, while the Belgian pushed the Valencia defense with determination and ultimately crossed the ball that led Toni Lato into his own goal without knowing it.
The goal, inside the post and just bouncing over the line, symbolized how close Valencia was to getting a result of the match. From his more defensive left-back role, Carrasco now forced the winning goal this weekend and also scored last week’s decisive match against Barcelona after exploding the length of the pitch at lightning speed. The evolution of his style of play moves in tandem with the increasingly dynamic Atleti and with much more variation in his attack, compared to the iterations of his team that we have seen in the past.
This team of Colchoneros can ask different questions to the rival teams and mix them up within the game if things don’t go the way Simeone would like. More importantly, this result shows that they are capable of winning matches that are in danger of escaping from them, when other teams want to frustrate them by sitting deep; The kind of three-point performances that win titles. His title charge is likely to dominate La Liga news in the coming weeks.
Elsewhere…
Spanish soccer mourned the loss of Diego Armando Maradona this week with minutes of silence and applause before each La Liga start. While El Diego had a more glorious spell in Italy and with the Argentina team, he still had a great impact not only on Spanish football during his time with Barcelona and Seville, but on world football in general, becoming a cultural icon. as much as sports; an incarnation of the free spirit, the victorious underdog and the ultimate imperfect genius.
Diego Simeone’s emotion was evident during his applause when he remembered his compatriot and teammate during his spells at Sevilla. Messi presented a Newell’s Old Boys jersey to celebrate his goal against Osasuna. Messi grew up as a Newell’s fan and Maradona played for Rosario’s club in the early 1990s. In fact, the Barça captain’s goal was eerily identical to the only goal Maradona scored for Newell’s.
https://twitter.com/albertmercade/status/1333114774243119111?s=08
The celebration of Messi’s goal and jersey was not the only tribute to Maradona’s memory this weekend. When Martin Braithwaite scored the first goal of the game, the Argentinian followed him over the goal line with his hand extended as if so tempted to hit him with his own ‘hand of god’ to make sure he crossed the line. Barça’s number 10 didn’t even have to touch the ball at the end, as the Danish’s thigh had almost done enough to put Barça ahead.
Mikel Oyarzabal has never missed a penalty as a professional footballer in his life. He has fired 16 shots from the spot now after his last against Villarreal, canceling Gerard Moreno’s penalty earlier in the match, and has converted them all. Real Sociedad and the yellow submarine can get a lot of encouragement from a well-contested soccer game on Sunday night.
Two of the most fit teams in La Liga, both playing attractive football and placing Atlético de Madrid at the top of the table, would consider qualifying for Europe again as a successful season, but the longer the campaign dragged on with greats Names like Barcelona and Seville, outside of the top four, might consider readjusting their ambitions for the season and seeing the Champions League qualification as a serious goal.
Deportivo Alavés have been undefeated for five games after beating Real Madrid away from home 1-2. The last time they saw such a stretch of form was in February-March 2019, when six undefeated against Levante, Real Betis, Celta Vigo, Villarreal, Eibar and Huesca. This current streak features Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid, and their next outing will be against Real Sociedad.
Meanwhile, the champions are curiously getting used to giving away free penalties and goals, as a penalty shot and a misplaced pass from Thibaut Courtois at Joselu’s feet just outside the area were how the Basques scored their goals. Madrid are now seven points off the top of the table, while Atlético de Madrid has a game in hand that could extend that gap to nine.
After joining the club last January and failing to make an immediate impact, Youssef En-Nesyri is proving to be a worthy striker in this Seville team as of late. The Moroccan is on a strong scoring streak now, with six goals in his last seven appearances for the club and the national team. In fact, he’s started just four of those games, putting his goal-per-minute ratio at one strike every 62 minutes since Halloween. The Andalusians are getting used to snatching up late wins, with dramatic finishes to win all three points in their last three outings now.
Celta de Vigo’s new coach, Eduardo Coudet, scored his first victory as La Liga coach over the weekend when the Galicians came back to defeat a Granada that now appears to be in free fall. A couple of weeks ago, Iago Aspas spoke about the managerial situation at the club when Óscar García was still in charge and blamed the bad results on the players instead of the coach. Oscar got a couple more games after those comments, but Celta’s change of manager in November is almost turning into an annual event. Coudet is now out of place thanks to goals from Nolito, Miguel Baeza and Fran Beltrán.
Goal of the week: Fantastic control by Lucas Boyé and even better shot to the corner of the Cádiz net from afar. Elche had taken the lead against their promoted teammates before the Andalusians replaced them to share the points. The commentator of the game’s highlights on the La Liga YouTube channel used the fantastic phrase twist to describe the shot, saying that the Elche forward put the ball “where the mice sleep”.
Lucas Boyé with a fantastic shot! 🔥
The Argentine striker took advantage of his first touch to create the angle, and then shot Elche ahead ⚪🟢 pic.twitter.com/JQTZOkzNnO
– Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) November 28, 2020
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