Atletico Madrid 3 – 1 Levante UD
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Atletico Madrid came away with yet another three points at home against Levante on Matchday 12. That makes it eight victories in a row at home for the club.
Atletico, who have a history of struggle against Levante, totally dominated this game. They completely overwhelmed Levante with nonstop attacking play through the wings. Levante was lucky enough to have limited the damage to just three goals.
Atletico had 74% possession, 25 shots and a whopping 21 corners, both records of LaLiga this season.
Atletico’s first goal came in the 12th minute after Alex Baena crossed the ball to Giuliano Simeone’s just inside the box, where with a little bit of luck made it through to an overlapping Pablo Barrios who sent in a cross that pinballed around in the box and ultimately gave way to an unfortunate own goal by Adrian De La Fuente.
After the goal, Atletico did not take their foot off the gas, besieging Levante’s box with a storm of crosses, as relentless as Roman archers launching arrows into battle.
However, Levante was not going to go down too easy, and like I said, Levante always gives trouble to Simeone’s side. On a corner in the 21st minute, Manuel Sanchez was left unattended at the far side post where he easily beat Oblak in the bottom right corner.
After the equalizer, Atletico continued to knock on Levate’s door. Another big chance for Atletico came in the 23rd minute when Julain Alvarez delivered a magical ball onto Giuliano’s head, but Matthew Ryan made a spectacular save to keep the score leveled.
The chances kept coming and Atletico were trying everything they could to sneak one past Ryan, but Levante remained strong in defense and held the score to 1-1 after the first 45.
During the second half, Atletico continued to attack on the left side through Matteo Ruggeri and Alex Baena. However, Levante’s defense did not budge.
With Alexander Sorloth creating little danger, and Barrios seeming to be off his game, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada came on, and Griezmann made an instant impact. Just 30 seconds after being subbed on, Griezmann scored a goal to re-take the lead after a beautiful buildup from the back. Giuliano received the ball in the middle of the pitch, where he played a beautiful throughball to Marcos Llorente, who used his speed to beat the defender and find a wide-open Griezmann in front of the goal.
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After the go-ahead goal, Levante could not just play for the tie, but had to look for another equalizer to hold onto their one point. This allowed Griezmann and Atletico to take total control of the game and create some dangerous opportunities.
However, Levante still had some life in them. In the 76th minute, they were rewarded with another corner in which Jan Oblak became Atletico’s savior yet again. Oblak made an incredible save from Goduine Koyalipou’s header, denying Levante the equalizer.
In the 80th minute, Griezmann intercepted a bad pass from Koyalipou, where he played a ball through to Alvarez who took a shot that was saved by Ryan, but sneaked past to find Griezmann sliding in to put the shot in the back of the net.
The action was not yet finished, when in the 89th minute Jose Maria Gimenez committed a reckless foul, receiving a yellow card and awarding Levante with a promising free kick. Carlos Alvarez took a shot from the free kick that ended up sneaking past Oblak and pulling Levante within one of Atletico with four minutes of stoppage time left. However, the goal was disallowed by VAR after Matias Moreno was ruled offside.
Ultimately in the last four minutes of stoppage time, Atletico secured their 3 points and moved to fourth place in the table.
Once again Giuliano and Llorente could not be stopped. They are the hardest workers on the pitch day in and day out. Simeone, after coming off three MOTM performances in a row, wreaked havoc on the right side, while Llorente once again ran the hardest out of anyone on the field the full 90 minutes, bagging an assist to Griezmann’s first goal and offering many dangerous throughballs and deliveries into the box.
Another International break takes place this week, meaning Atletico’s next game will be away on November 23 in a derby against Getafe.
Atleti Corner 
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