On a hot and sweaty night, Valencia and Atlético Madrid played out a thrilling 1-1 draw.
The game was unquestionably the biggest fixture of La Liga’s opening weekend and it absolutely lived up to the billing, delivering an exciting end-to-end match full of great performances. Who were the winners and losers?
Winner: Angel Correa
Is this finally going to be his year? Angel Correa’s introduction turned the UEFA Super Cup in Atlético Madrid’s favour and he opened the scoring here tonight with a sublime finish. The young Argentine was one of the country’s brightest prospects when he signed for Atleti as a teenager, and since then he has struggled to establish himself.
But he’s started this season in great form, having taken the no. 10 shirt he looks a player full of confidence and belief. All night long Valencia couldn’t get close to dealing with his rapid movement, darting into spaces and creating danger. The goal saw him drift off the back of the defence and finish intelligently at the near-post.
Loser: Diego GodÃn
Stop the presses! Hold the front page! Update the social media! Diego GodÃn made a mistake! And not just a bit of average defending where excellent defending was needed, but an honest to goodness error. No seriously, it actually happened.
With Atleti 0-1 up and looking fairly comfortable handling Valencia’s scattershot attacks, a big cross came over from the right-flank to Daniel Wass on the left side of Atleti’s box. Wass had been playing intelligently all night, and he didn’t dawdle, instantly playing the ball back across the box for Rodrigo. This should have been an easy clearance for GodÃn, but he totally misjudged the flight of the ball, missed his clearance and left Rodrigo alone to finish, levelling things.
Winner: Rodrigo
Eight years ago, Rodrigo was playing on loan for Bolton Wanderers. Now he’s playing so well that Real Madrid are genuinely discussing buying him back (he began his career there) for well over €100m. Tonight against Atleti he was absolutely brilliant; yes he scored but that was just one aspect of his performance.
It was a pretty huge aspect, though. As much as GodÃn misjudged the flight of the ball he also probably expected to be contesting an aerial duel with Rodrigo. The Spain international sensibly ducked out of that, waited for the ball to him, controlled it beautifully on his chest before thundering it home into the roof of the net.
Rodrigo was just everything for Atleti. He carried the ball well, demanded it in forward areas and wasn’t ever afraid about taking the game to Atleti even when Valencia were losing.
Loser: Cristiano Piccini
For Angel Correa’s opening goal, the Argentine made a superb run off the back of the Valencia defence. He was found by a stunning through-ball from Antoine Griezmann, who shaped to shoot before threading a reverse pass through the defenders and into Correa’s path.
It was a majestic goal, but it was only possible because Valencia’s new right-back Cristiano Piccini was stood about two yards deeper than the rest of his defensive team-mates (who had formed a perfect offside trap). It’s not a surprise that Valencia’s new boy was out of sync with everyone, he also offered precious little as an attacking force, but it did put Valencia into a position they were fortunate to recover from.
Winner: Barcelona and Real Madrid
Barcelona and Real Madrid both had considerably easier opening weekend fixtures than Atlético Madrid, and they would have been hoping that the truly impressive Atleti (who just a few days ago blasted Los Blancos 4-2 in the UEFA Super Cup) would show weakness and drop some points away to Valencia.
But at the same time, they wouldn’t have wanted Valencia to start their campaign by beating the heavyweight Atleti. The confidence taken from that could have propelled the side, so excellently coached by Marcelino, into the realm of genuine title contenders. Spain’s big two would have been hoping for a draw, and thanks to some dodgy finishing that’s exactly what they got.
Loser: Diego Simeone
Cholo Simeone was back on the touchline (after serving a ban during the UEFA Super Cup) and would have liked to see his Atleti side build on their first European victory over hated rivals Real Madrid with a statement win on opening day. Sure, Barcelona and Madrid had won too, but they had winnable home games. If Atleti rocked up to the Mestalla and got the win? That would be huge.
They started brightly enough too, taking the lead after 26 minutes. But in almost classic Simeone form, they didn’t seize the initiative when they had it and instead retreated to a defensive posture. They invited Valencia onto them and looked to strike on the break, but all this ended up doing was allow Valencia to survive the early period of the game where Antoine Griezmann would have been at his freshest and thus Atleti at their most dangerous. It was a bad miscalculation by Simeone and one he needs to stop making if he wants Atleti to make good on their enormous talent and truly challenge for La Liga.
The post From Godin to Rodrigo, winners and losers from Atleti 1-1 Valencia appeared first on Squawka News.
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