Match report: El Madrileño stand firm and go top in Alcalá | OneFootball

After the defeat in Alicante, Atlético Madrileño hosts the leader CE Europa in Alcalá de Henares starting at 20:30. It’s a high-stakes match due to both teams’ positions in the standings and, although it’s not decisive since it’s only matchday 9, it could certainly shape the morale of both teams in the coming rounds.

Fernando Torres’ side 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 came in for Mario de Luis and Jano Monserrate.

The first half was evenly matched for both teams. As expected, the reserves attacked down the wings with the runs of Arnau Ortiz and Iker Luque, as well as playing long balls from the area of Julio Díaz and Dani Martínez. The rojiblancos had several approaches, but the clearest chances belonged to the opponent, attacking the spaces between the full-backs and center-backs, taking advantage of Madrileño’s high defensive line. Arnau sent a rather weak shot into Flere’s hands, Iker remained incisive on the right, and Rayane worked hard in duels and impressed with moments of quality.

Europa came close to scoring first from a set piece, with a great save from Esquivel to keep things level. However, it was Torres’ team who struck first: after a good team move, the ball ended up at Iker Luque’s feet. He came up with one of his moments of brilliance and, after beating two defenders, unleashed a shot into the top corner that went in off the crossbar. That’s the second goal of the season for the Vallecano, who now has more goals than in the entire 2024-2025 season.

At the start of the second half, Madrileño was very close to scoring a second from a set piece. In fact, the reserves did score, but it was ruled out for offside both before and after review by the FVS. Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of it, as the 2-0 soon arrived: a counterattack involving Iker Luque, Rayane Belaid, and Omar Janneh ended with the striker assisting Arnau Ortiz, who, after cutting inside, slotted home the second goal. Mati Barboza came on for Dani Martínez, and later Miguel Cubo and Javi Morcillo replaced Omar Janneh and Javi Serrano.

A possible penalty for the opposition was reviewed after a tussle in the rojiblanco area, but the Catalans lost the challenge when the referee indicated there was nothing there. 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.

Atlético Madrileño returns to the top of the table with this victory and records their fourth clean sheet. In the next round, 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.