Five points in the last five games – that's the balance FC Barcelona in La Liga competitions. The poorer performance of Hansi Flick's team meant that they lost all the advantage they had gained in the first part of the autumn round. Saturday's draw away to Real Betis gave their rivals a chance to catch up with Barca. On the same day, Real Madrid took advantage of this, beating Girona 3-0. Thanks to this, the “Royals” are only two points behind Barcelona, and they still have a game to play game outstanding.
Atletico had a similar plan when they hosted Sevilla on Sunday evening at their own stadium. With the victory, Diego Simeone's team could get closer to Barcelona by three points, having played one game less.
It started as planned. Then consternation
The Rojiblancos started this confrontation with a bang. Specifically, Antoine Griezmann, who hit the crossbar. The Frenchman also tried a second time, but the goalkeeper made an intervention. Alvaro Fernandez turned out to be helpless in the 10th minute when Rodrigo De Paul fired a bomb from outside the penalty area.
The beginning announced another great victory for Atletico, which had scored as many as 14 goals in the three previous matches, but two minutes later Sevilla unexpectedly equalized after Dodi Lukebakio's goal. It was also a shot from outside the penalty area as a result of a short corner kick.
This completely destabilized the rhythm of the hosts, who were not able to get back into high gear for a long time. This had huge negative consequences in the 32nd minute. Issac Romero finished Sevilla's great counterattack by firing a strong left-foot shot into Jan Oblak's long corner. The Slovenian only managed to knock the ball into the net.
The state of agony in Atletico's game lasted until the half-time whistle with the score 1-2, although two flashes should be noted. The hosts equalized after Julian Alvarez scored, but VAR found an offside. The referees responsible for the video review, however, did not notice an obvious penalty for Atletico a few moments earlier, when the goalkeeper prevented Gallagher from scoring.
Successful renovation of Atletico
After the change of sides, the ball was under the control of Diego Simeone's players for long periods. The son of the Argentine coach – Giuliano Simeone – was close to scoring and was stopped by the goalkeeper. However, in the 56th minute, the guests dealt a painful blow. Juanlu Sanchez effectively closed the cross from the left side and beat Jan Oblak with a shot under the crossbar. The guests from Andalusia were deadly effective in their counterattacks that day.
Atletico regained contact after an hour of play. Pablo Barrios made a great through-ball pass, which Antoine Griezmann took advantage of, shooting – interestingly – with his right foot into the short corner. The team from Madrid rushed to make up for the losses, completely dominating their opponent. At times it was a siege of Sevilla's goal. The substitute Alexander Sorloth had two dangerous head shots, but he lost the duel with the rival's goalkeeper.
The hosts achieved their goal only in the 80th minute. Another substitute Samuel Lino's long-range shot could have resulted from helplessness, but the Brazilian took the shot perfectly. It couldn't have been better and he gave a draw to his team, which was striving for victory in the end.
In the last minutes, there were still a lot of crosses towards Sorloth, but it was not the Norwegian who became the hero of Civitas Metropolitano. The author of the most important goal for 4:3 in the fourth minute of added time was Antoine Griezmann! The Frenchman completed the renovation with a beautiful shot under the crossbar!
Ultimately Atletico Madrid managed to lead from 1:3 to a 4:3 victory and gain the key three points in this round, reducing the gap to the leader FC Barcelona. That's three points and one less game played.