With Ousmane Dembélé’s only goal, the Catalans beat the colchoneros 1-0 and are the exclusive leaders of the Spanish tournament. Moreover, they benefited Pellegrini’s men, who entered the Champions League qualifying zone.
LaLiga de España’s Sunday day ended with the most powerful match, between Athletic of Madrid and Barcelona. On date 16 of the championship, the Catalans defeated the colchoneros by the minimum, at the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium, to also stay the only Hispanic tournament leaders.
The culés visited those of Cholo Simeone with several sensations on the back. In the middle of the week, they advanced in the Copa del Rey, respecting the logic, but they suffered too much to overcome the obstacle of Intercity, a casting of the third category of Spain. Moreover, They already knew the result of Real Madrid, who lost yesterday Saturday against Villarreal at the La Ceramica stadium.
For the same reason, the students of Xavi Hernández had the great opportunity to be left alone at the top and thus scare away, for a few days at least, the ghosts that sometimes haunt the Camp Nou. They didn’t have the suspended Robert Lewandowski. The replacement, in the centre-forward role, was Ansu Fati.
The visit started the game better, frequently closing in on Jan Oblak’s goal. They found the advantage in the 21st minute, on the score of Ousmane Dembélé. The vice-world champion fires a low cross shot, concluding a piece built between Pedri and Gavi, the flagships of the culé boutique. Disadvantaged, Atlético went out to look more offensively, especially on the wings. At 31′, a shot from Marcos Llorente almost equalized, but the ball went wide.
Towards the end, Barcelona didn’t have as much possession and Atlético tried to attack more, but they didn’t do it so clearly. The duel went wrong and the visit was enough with Dembélé’s goal to hold on. At minute 72, a goal by Ferrán Torres was disallowed for offside. In injury time, Torres and Stefan Savic were sent off, in wrestling-worthy action.
Barça’s victory in Madrid allows him to be the exclusive leader of LaLiga with 41 points, three more than Real Madrid, now their only goalkeeper. The result was also good for Betis because Manuel Pellegrini’s squad is settled in the Champions League qualifying zone after their victory against Rayo Vallecano. From now on, culés and béticos will face off for the Spanish Super Cup next Thursday in Saudi Arabia.
In the rest of the date 16, Jorge Sampaoli’s Sevilla left the direct relegation zone after their 2-1 win over Getafe. Argentinian Marcos Acuña, champion of Qatar, made it 1-0 in 36 minutes. In the second period, Rafa Mir scored 2-0 at 80′. For the azulones, Borja Mayoral discounted, at 87′.
The Andalusians sit 17th in the table with 15 points, the same amount as Cádiz (the former club of Tomás Alarcón, who made his Zaragoza debut today), but with a better goal difference. The absolute bottom is Elche by Enzo Roco, with only four units.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
