Report: El Madrileño show their strength in Alcalá | OneFootball

After the defeat in Alicante, Atlético Madrileño hosts the leader CE Europa in Alcalá de Henares starting at 20:30. A high-stakes duel due to the ranking position of both teams, and although it is not decisive as it is only matchday 9, it can certainly affect the morale of both teams in the upcoming matches.

The team under Fernando Torres lined up as follows: Salvador Esquivel; Javier Boñar, Aleksa Puric, Dani Martínez, Julio Díaz; Javier Serrano, Martín Bellotti; Iker Luque, Rayane Belaid, Arnau Ortiz; Omar Janneh. Only two changes compared to Alicante: Salvador Esquivel and Rayane Belaid come in for Mario de Luis and Jano Monserrate.

In the first half, both teams were evenly matched. As expected, the reserve team attacked down the wings with the runs of Arnau Ortiz and Iker Luque, in addition to playing long from the area of Julio Díaz and Dani Martínez. The red and whites had several approaches, but the clearest situations were from the opponent attacking the lateral-center intervals, taking advantage of the advanced defense of Madrileño. Arnau sent a somewhat weak shot into the hands of Flere, Iker remained incisive on the right, and Rayane showed great effort in the duels and impressed with quality touches.

Europa came close to scoring the first from a set piece, with a great save from Esquivel included for variety. However, it was Torres's team that took the lead first, after a good collective play, the ball ended up at the feet of Iker Luque. He came up with one of his brilliant moves and, after getting past two opponents, sent a powerful shot into the top corner that ended up in the back of the net with the help of the crossbar. The second goal for the player from Vallecas, who now has more goals than in the entire 2024-2025 season.

As the second half began, Madrileño was close to scoring the second from a set piece. Well, actually the reserve team scored, but it was disallowed for offside before and after the review in the FVS. Fortunately, that wasn't the end of it because soon the 2-0 came: a counterattack woven between Iker Luque, Rayane Belaid, and Omar Janneh for the striker to assist Arnau Ortiz and, after cutting inside, put the second on the scoreboard. Mati Barboza came on for Dani Martínez, and later Miguel Cubo and Javi Morcillo replaced Omar Janneh and Javi Serrano.

A possible penalty in favor of the opponent was reviewed after a tussle in the red and white area, but the Catalans lost the challenge when the referee indicated there was nothing. Jano Monserrate and Jorge Castillo came on for Rayane Belaid and Martín Bellotti. And, after 7 minutes of added time, the referee blew the final whistle.

The Atlético Madrileño returns to the top of the table with this victory and achieves their fourth clean sheet. In the next matchday, they will visit Gimnàstic de Tarragona on Sunday, November 2 at 20:30.

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