Match report, Madrileño beaten at Nueva Condomina | OneFootball

After the win over Antequera and the strong run of results in recent matchdays, Atlético Madrileño traveled to Murcia with just one objective: win and go top of the table. It did not happen, and the feelings in the first half were not what had been expected, but there is still a long way to go.

Fernando Torres’ side lined up as follows: Mario de Luis; Javier Boñar, Aleksa Puric, Mati Barboza, Dani Martínez; Javier Morcillo, Martín Bellotti; Iker Luque, Rayane Belaid, Arnau Ortiz; Rafa Llorente. Morcillo, who made his first-team debut just a few hours earlier, started in Murcia. Dani Martínez moved to left-back and his place went to Barboza. 

The first half left plenty to be desired, to put it one way. The team did not take to the pitch as it had been doing in recent weeks and Real Murcia took control of the game. They played with directness, intensity and quality, going ahead from a set piece through Óscar Gil. Flakus made it 2-0 but it was ruled out for offside and, in the closing minutes of the first half, Joel Jorquera extended the lead with a powerful shot from outside the box. Arnau Ortiz, returning to what had been his home a few years ago, scored what would have been the temporary 1-1 minutes earlier, but his teammate Rafa Llorente was in an offside position.

It was somewhat reminiscent of the afternoon in Tarazona, where the opponent was better and, despite the timid rojiblanco reaction, it was not enough to change the scoreline in the opening 45 minutes. Also identical was the fact that the coach decided to make his first changes at half-time, bringing on Miguel Cubo and Jorge Castillo. The player from Segovia, incidentally, ended up creating chances for his side, such as the clear-cut penalty by Jon García that the referee awarded after an FVS review. Arnau Ortiz took the penalty, Gazzaniga saved it, but the Argentine could not smother the rebound and the Catalan winger pulled one back. It was not his best match, but he now has 20 goals this season. Not bad at all.

The team threw itself into attack, made life difficult for the granas and came close to equalising, but it lacked more precision in passing and tempo in the opposition half — at least, that was my impression. Cubo won several fouls for his side, including a dangerous one near the opposing box, and the rojiblancos almost made it 2-2 from a set piece. But the score did not change and, one month later, Madrileño lost away from home. They had won in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Tarazona, and almost did so at the home of Sevilla Atlético.

With this defeat, the reserve side ends matchday 31 in 3rd place with 54 points. Yes, in third place, because Eldense thrashed Europa and Sabadell lost at home to Betis Deportivo, so the race for automatic promotion has become even tighter. Next matchday they will host Marbella on Friday, April 10, at 19:00 in Alcalá de Henares.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.