Nico González brace, Almada sent off in Atlético loss to Elche | OneFootball

On Wednesday afternoon, after losing the Copa del Rey final to Real Sociedad, Atlético de Madrid suffered another setback and fell 3-2 away to Elche on Matchday 33 of La Liga. Despite a brace of stunning goals from Nico González, Diego Simeone’s side paid dearly for Thiago Almada’s early red card and came away empty-handed. Nahuel Molina and Giuliano Simeone came on.

The match started in great fashion for Cholo’s men. Nico González put together a sensational move, played a one-two with Rodrigo Mendoza, who returned it with a backheel, and the Argentina international forward finished to open the scoring. However, the hosts quickly found the equalizer through David Affengruber.

Around the half-hour mark, Thiago Almada lost the ball while playing out from the back to Affengruber, whom he grabbed by the shirt inside the box when he was through one-on-one, and referee Guillermo Cuadra did not hesitate: penalty and red card. André Silva converted it, and Elche turned it around.

Soon after, Atleti found the equalizer through a brilliant individual play by Nico González, who carried the ball down the byline, chipped Argentine goalkeeper Matías Dituro, and headed home. Although it was initially disallowed because the ball was deemed to have gone out, VAR overturned the decision and awarded the goal.

In any case, playing with an extra man for an hour made the difference, and in the second half Eder Sarabia’s team found the winning goal through André Silva to seal the victory for Elche, who moved up to 35 points and climbed out of the relegation zone. Atlético de Madrid, meanwhile, remained on 57 points in fourth place.

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