{"id":928,"date":"2016-09-25T12:46:12","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T16:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=928"},"modified":"2016-09-25T12:47:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-25T16:47:55","slug":"atletico-madrid-1-deportivo-0-match-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2016\/09\/25\/atletico-madrid-1-deportivo-0-match-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Atl\u00e9tico Madrid 1 Deportivo 0: Match Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u00a0<\/strong>went within two points of rivals\u00a0Real Madrid\u00a0<\/strong>at the top of\u00a0La Liga<\/strong>, as they beat a resolute\u00a0Deportivo La Coru\u00f1a\u00a0<\/strong>1-0.\u00a0Diego Simeone\u00a0<\/strong>could’ve been forgiven for having one eye on his side’s\u00a0Champions League\u00a0<\/strong>tie against\u00a0Bayern Munich\u00a0<\/strong>on Wednesday, but he opted to play a strong side.\u00a0Augusto,\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Gait\u00e1n<\/strong> and\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Gim\u00e9nez<\/strong> were brought into the starting XI following\u00a0Los Rojiblancos’<\/em> excellent 1-1 draw in the Nou Camp earlier in the week, but otherwise the team was unchanged.<\/p>\n

Depor, without a win since the opening day of the season, lost at home to\u00a0Legan\u00e9s\u00a0<\/strong>in midweek and were 15th in the table at the start of the game. They had yet to concede a goal away from home, though, so the result was not a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico Madrid 1 Deportivo 0: Match Review<\/h3>\n

Atleti have been a more attacking outlet this season, but they struggled to break Deportivo down in the early minutes. Los Branquiazuis\u00a0<\/i>were very well-organised at the back, keeping plenty of men behind the ball at all times when not in possession and giving the Atl\u00e9tico midfielders little space to create chances. They were able to keep the tempo of the game down and stifle the opposition attackers.<\/p>\n

Just after 20 minutes, after Augusto had been stretchered off and replaced by\u00a0Gabi,\u00a0<\/strong>Atleti had their first real chance of the match.\u00a0Yannick Carrasco\u00a0<\/strong>played a brilliant ball through to\u00a0Antoine Griezmann,\u00a0<\/strong>who dragged his shot wide. The\u00a0Frenchman\u00a0<\/strong>really should have opened the scoring with that chance. A few minutes later, Gabi played in\u00a0Gait\u00e1n,\u00a0<\/strong>whose lobbed shot was cleared off the line by\u00a0Laure.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The introduction of Gabi helped Atleti to up the tempo a bit, much to Simeone’s delight. The Argentine spent much of the first-half gesticulating wildly\u2014as ever\u2014but a lot of the time he was trying to tell his players to speed things up. Deportivo were able to take the sting out of their play towards the end of the first 45 minutes, though, and the teams went into the break level.<\/p>\n

However, seconds before half-time\u00a0Fay\u00e7al Fajr\u00a0<\/strong>needlessly shoved\u00a0Gait\u00e1n to earn himself a second yellow card and an early bath. His moment of stupidity made his team’s challenge a lot more difficult.<\/p>\n

Second half<\/h3>\n

In the second half, Atleti continued to dominate proceedings. The extra man advantage began to tell as they found themselves in much more space and started to create much more convincing chances. Carrasco hit the woodwork on 53 minutes and forced a brilliant double save out of\u00a0Germ\u00e1n Lux<\/strong>\u00a0five minutes later,\u00a0<\/strong>following which\u00a0Filipe\u00a0Lu\u00eds\u00a0<\/strong>dragged his shot wide.<\/p>\n

An Atl\u00e9tico goal was starting to look like an inevitability and, eventually, the home side got the breakthrough. In the 70th minute, a clever pass towards the byline from\u00a0Juanfran\u00a0<\/strong>through to\u00a0K\u00e9vin Gameiro<\/strong> allowed the Frenchman to provide his compatriot Griezmann with an easy finish. The 25-year-old’s tap-in was his fifth goal of the season and probably his most important.<\/p>\n

After the goal, Atl\u00e9tico chose not to go for the kill, slowing the game down and perhaps conserving their energy for their big game in Europe in the week. They kept control of the ball very well and only allowed Deportivo a couple of half-chances. But in injury time, a poorly-cleared cross went out to Emre \u00c7olak<\/strong>, who thundered a shot from 18 yards towards the goal. His shot seemed to have the better of ‘keeper\u00a0Jan Oblak,\u00a0<\/strong>but ever-reliable Diego\u00a0God\u00edn\u00a0<\/strong>headed the shot away to keep the score at 1-0.<\/p>\n

Atl\u00e9tico’s performance<\/h3>\n

Simeone’s side will perhaps attract criticism from those who try to accuse them of playing “bad” football, but in truth they played some attractive, attacking football until the last phase of the game.\u00a0At times, they rushed their attacks instead of patiently building opportunities, but they thoroughly deserved to pick up the three points.<\/p>\n

The team’s positioning remains one of its strongest assets. Very often, many players pushed forward in search of a goal\u2014God\u00edn found himself in a centre-forward’s position in a couple of the attacks towards the end of the first-half\u2014but they always kept enough men back to stave off any counter-attacks. All of the players knew where each other was at any given time, which makes a huge difference both defensively and in terms of building attacks.<\/p>\n

The match against Bayern Munich will be a huge challenge, but should they replicate their performance against\u00a0Barcelona\u00a0<\/strong>a few days ago and play with the same attacking intensity that they did today after Gabi came on, they should be more than capable of getting a positive result.<\/p>\n

Deportivo’s performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deportivo will have every right to be happy with their performance today, despite the result. Had Fajr not stupidly got himself sent off, they could easily have got themselves a point. Their resolute defending made life very difficult even for Atleti’s best attacking players, and they looked threatening, if not unstoppable, whenever they went forward.<\/p>\n

Their next match is at home to\u00a0Sporting\u00a0<\/strong>next Saturday. They have struggled to play in front of their own fans thus far this season, beating\u00a0Eibar\u00a0<\/strong>on the opening day but losing both their games since. Moreover, they are yet to keep a clean sheet at home this season, so a defensive performance similar to today’s will not go amiss.<\/p>\n

main photo<\/p>\n

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Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n