Atlético de Madrid arrived at San Mamés needing to pick up three points in their last game before the international break. Seven changes were made to the line-up that Cholo Simeone presented against Espanyol, with the main change being Juan Musso due to the absence of Jan Oblak. Another aspect worth highlighting was the fact that Conor Gallagher was a starter.
First part, very even
Under the torrential rain of San Mamés, both teams played a very even first half. Without a clear dominator of the match , the defences imposed themselves on the attacks and the game was not very fluid at any time. The clearest chance was that of Julián Álvarez, who, after a defensive error, defined very poorly the one-on-one with Julen Aguirrezabala.
The red-and-whites could hardly string together plays and could not find their reference: Julián Álvarez. The Argentine appeared like an island in the forward line and behind him were two well-marked lines of five defenders and four midfielders.
Second part, with one more gear
The technical talks between both teams helped to speed up the second half. Just a few seconds after the restart, a pass from Iñaki Williams to his younger brother served to score the first goal of the match. However, the semi-automatic offside would disallow it by very little.
Cholo Simeone's team also took a step forward and began to surround Julián Álvarez better and combine more quickly. This created chances for Antoine Griezmann with a cross shot and a shot by Samu Lino blocked by Iñaki Williams.
The match was getting fast-paced and after a long-range shot from Oihan Sancet that was repelled by Juan Musso, Cholo made a triple substitution . Julián Álvarez, Samu Lino and Conor Gallagher were out; Alexander Sørloth, Rodrigo Riquelme and Rodrigo De Paul were in.
The match was heading for a draw and with ten minutes to go, Simeone made his fourth substitution and with it another debut. In this case it would be Giuliano Simeone who would come on for Antoine Griezmann. The Argentine coach would use up all five substitutions with the introduction of Ángel Correa for the eternal captain: Koke .
The changes were key
In the previous game against Espanyol, Sørloth's final substitution for Reinildo was heavily criticised by much of the press and fans. However, this time it would be a different story. Alexander Sørloth pressed a ball in the middle of the field and after fighting with the Athletic defender, he set up Ángel Correa to dribble past the goalkeeper and score 0-1.
A key goal, one of those that you remember at the end of the season. The whole bench ran out to celebrate and there was no one who was not aware of the importance of the three points collected in San Mamés.
With this, Cholo Simeone's Atlético de Madrid goes into the international break with two wins and two draws. There are many things to improve, but with two important things that are slowly being recovered: clean sheets and decisiveness in the penalty areas.