Athletic hand Atletico first LaLiga defeat with ruthless second-half display
Athletic Club handed Atletico Madrid their first LaLiga defeat of the season with an emphatic 3-0 win at San Mames, producing a ruthless second-half display to punish Diego Simeone’s side.
The result gives Athletic their second win in six home matches but the performance was far more convincing than that record suggests.
Match highlight
Atletico actually started well. Lee Kang-In was at the heart of their attacking play showing sharp control and close technique to weave through the Athletic defence before firing narrowly wide of the left post.
Athletic had an escape of their own soon after. Atletico struggled to clear a series of deflections around the area. Oihan Sancet pounced on the loose ball but his effort at the near post found the side netting.
Alex Baena received the ball in a position and tried his luck from medium range aiming for the top corner but Unai Simon was alert and made a comfortable save. Lee remained a threat too taking a pass beating a defender and driving another powerful effort narrowly wide from the edge of the box.
Atletico could have felt frustrated to go into half-time level. There was no excuse for what followed after the break.
Athletic took the lead when Inaki Williams curled in an effort that Atletico’s defence could not deal with. His brother Nico then reacted at range to head the ball home. VAR checked whether the ball had gone out of play in the build-up. The goal stood.
The Williams brothers were not finished. Immediately Nico slipped a neat pass to Inaki, who produced a clever through ball into the box for Robert Navarro. The forward curled his finish into the corner to score his second goal of the season and put Athletic 2-0 up.
Atletico’s attacking threat faded badly after that. They did have a chance to halve the deficit in the minute when Julian Alvarez found space to shoot low toward the bottom-right corner but Simon produced an excellent reflex save to push the ball wide.
Athletic continued to look dangerous down the left on yet their third goal came from the other flank in the final minute of normal time.
A long pass found Benat Gerenabarrena, who squared the ball across the area. Two Atletico players failed to deal with it allowing Sancet to tap home and complete a night for the home side.
The win lifts Athletic to eighth, in the table. Sends a warning to the rest of LaLiga. Atletico meanwhile now risk falling behind traditional title rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona after a second-half collapse.
