Report, rotated Atlético beaten in Elche | OneFootball

Another defeat for Atleti, in yet another transitional match for the team, moving from the cup clash to the excitement of the Champions League, which arrives next week. In between, the two matches this week, with this trip to Elche and the one at the Metropolitano against Athletic.

In Elche, the poor run of results continued, just as the rotations did (Boñar, Julio Díaz out wide), with the focus more on rest and preparing for the match against Arsenal than anything else.

And yet, in the 10th minute, Simeone’s men took the lead thanks to a great run from Nico González and a backheel from Mendoza, who once again set up the Argentine inside the box, and he scored the first goal of the match.

It was a promising game, but it was soon derailed by Elche’s equalizer in the 18th minute, after a corner that the defense cleared, but on the second ball, a delivery into the heart of the box found Affengruber, who beat Oblak.

And that was when the situation and the course of the match began to turn. The initiative returned to the Elche side, even more so when, in the 32nd minute, Almada switched off and lost the ball on the edge of the box to Affengruber, pulled him back, and the referee awarded a penalty and sent off the Argentine, changing the game completely.

The 2-1 score sparked joy in the stands, but it did not last long, as Nico González once again, in an individual move, with a pair of crucial headed touches that kept the ball from going out over the byline, made it 2-2 for Atleti. A goal that made it onto the scoreboard, not without help from VAR.

A second half that confirmed another defeat

In the second half, Elche’s dominance was not turning into goals, thanks to solid defending in a 5-3-1 shape. But eventually the pressure paid off, and in the 75th minute Elche went back in front once again.

A corner for the home side ended with a save from Oblak, but once again on the second ball there was a marking error, and Affengruber set up André Silva in the heart of the box, where he simply tapped in the winning goal.

The triple substitution of Griezmann, Giuliano and Barrios, who played again after a long spell out, gave the team more energy, but it was not enough to take a point in Elche.

The road toward preparing for the match against Arsenal goes on.

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