Report: Leaders snatch late win in Marbella | OneFootball

After the defeat in Algeciras last Sunday, Atlético Madrileño traveled to Marbella to face the Marbella team at Dama de Noche, making up for the postponed match from a few weeks ago due to a food poisoning incident affecting the rojiblanca expedition. A crucial match for the standings, as winning would quickly put the events at Nuevo Mirador behind them and create distance from their pursuers.

As expected, with 3 matches in just 7 days, there were rotations in the lineup. Fernando Torres's team lined up as follows: Salvador Esquivel; Javier Boñar, Aleksa Puric, Dani Martínez, Julio Díaz; Javier Morcillo, Martín Bellotti; Koke Mota, Rayane Belaid, Arnau Ortiz; Dario Sits. Several changes in the starting eleven, along with the arrival of Esquivel, Boñar, and Dani Martínez straight from Eindhoven.

The first half was generally dominated by the rojiblancos, although the pitch did not allow for prolonged possession as it was practically impossible to maintain decent control between the grass and the rain. Arnau Ortiz had the clearest chance for the reserves after a great through pass from Dani Martínez into space, which the Catalan failed to convert. The local team had several set-piece opportunities, but the Madrileño defense remained alert and compact to repel any attempts.

At the start of the second half, Torres brought on Iker Luque, Miguel Cubo, and Jano Monserrate to add verticality on the wings, dynamism, and greater fluidity in play, especially combining through the central channel in tight spaces. Miguel Cubo opened the scoring after a pass from the left wing by Julio Díaz, but surprisingly, the referee decided to disallow the goal after reviewing it on the FVS following the usual poor quality footage shown on the monitor. For whatever reason, it did not count on the scoreboard.

But that did not slow the team down; on the contrary, they continued with the same game plan and ended up pinning Marbella in their own area until, after combining inside, Jano Monserrate picked up the rebound from a shot by Javier Boñar that struck Miguel Cubo and, with a left-footed shot across to the far post, beat Manu García to set the final score at 0-1.

With this victory, Atlético Madrileño remains the leader but increases the gap to 4 points over their closest pursuers, CE Sabadell and CE Europa, who have 26 points. In the next match, they will host Sevilla Atlético in Alcalá de Henares on Sunday, December 14th at 20:30, which will be the last home game for the reserves.

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