Full-time: Atlético Madrid 2-0 Espanyol
Routine, you could probably call that. Not spectacular or really even terrifically impressive by any means, but very much a job done by Diego Simeone’s men and a necessary recovery from their defeat last time out. They’re fourth in the table, five points off Barcelona at the top of the table and just one back from Real.
90 mins + 2: Koke tries to tee Suárez up on the edge of the box, but he can’t quite get the ball under control, possibly thinking about his lunch. Well, I certainly am.
90 mins: Vazquez tries a hugely ambitious shot from range that sails gaily high and wide of the Atleti goal. Three minutes of added time.
89 mins: This game’s ambling to a close now. Atleti are happy with their imminent win, Espanyol don’t appear to have the wit to break down the home side’s beefy defence.
87 mins: A chance for Espanyol goes begging, as Cañas and Colotto rather get in each other’s way at the back stick, allowing Godin to head the thing clear.
85 mins: Last sub of the game - Mandzukic, who has toiled with not a massive amount of reward, goes off and Cristian Rodríguez comes on.
84 mins: Ooof, close from Griezmann. Mandzukic challenges in the area but the ball breaks to the French winger, who nips the ball around Casilla but with the angle disappearing and his balance becoming more precarious, he hits the outside of the post and tumbles over.
83 mins: Montañés makes tracks down the left and clips over a delightful cross, Stuani challenges with Godin for the ball and comes off worse, keeping neither possession nor his balance, and spends a minute or so whining.
80 mins: Gabi plays a delightful pass over the top for Griezmann who looks to be through on goal, but a bad bounce or some spin on the ball holds it up, allowing Javi Lopez to nip back in and make a superb saving tackle.
78 mins: Griezmann jinks and dips into the box from the left, cuts past one defender and tries a shot, but it’s towards the near post with no huge power, so Casilla saves rather easily.
77 mins: This referee, apparently thought to be one of the better young officials in Spain, is very much one for catching out the massed ranks waiting for a set piece. Espanyol deliver a free-kick into the box, but before the ball reaches the players the ref blows up for some infringement or other.
75 mins: Colotto, a brave man, fouls Griezmann right under Simeone’s nose on the touchline, and is bafflingly not booked for a hack to the winger’s Achilles. Koke swings over the free-kick, but the flag goes up for offside, again.
73 mins: Griezmann has a chance to make it three, but his shot is weak from the edge of the area and he probably should have passed to any of the waiting other players who had a clearer route to goal than he.
71 mins: Another set piece, as Godin goes up for the ball, loops a header to the far post where Giménez does brilliantly to beat a bunch of defenders and put a header back across goal, where Mario Suárez is waiting to tap home from David Nugent range.
GOAL! Atlético 2-0 Espanyol (Suárez 71)
At least I think it was Suárez.
70 mins: A long crossfield ball from right to left causes Juanfran some issues at the back stick, but Paco Montañés ghosting in can’t quite direct the header to anywhere that might be dangerous.
67 mins: Atleti win a free-kick after a high foot from Stuani, which Koke delivers threateningly. Casilla gets a half-punch to it, the ball loops up in the air and a couple of attackers attempt to direct it into the net, but Casilla is there to mop up the danger with another, more effective punch.
65 mins: Espanyol try to punch a hole through the Atleti defence but don’t succeed, Stuani’s first contribution to the game to try and claim a penalty from a vague waft near him from Godin. The home side counter through Mandzukic, but his shot goes awry.
63 mins: Subs for Espanyol - Cristhian Stuani comes on for the largely anonymous Felipe Caicedo, while Paco Montanes is on for Victor Álvarez.
62 mins: Garcia attempts a shot from the edge of the area which is blocked, and the Atleti team claim a handball. Colotto very ostentatiously holds his face, but the replays show that the ball did strike his arm, although it would have been stupidly harsh to give the penalty for that one.
60 mins:
Atletico now 10-0 up on Espanyol in corners. Would imagine idea when coming to Calderon is to try not & give em away.
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) October 19, 2014
59 mins: Change for Atleti - Antoine Griezmann comes on, giving Arda Turan a rest.
58 mins: The home fans appear to be singing a song that sounds an awful lot like ‘Annie’s Song’ - or, as Sheffield United fans know it, ‘The Greasy Chip Butty Song’. Any ideas?
57 mins: Atleti win another corner on the right, and in the melee that ensues Godin goes down claiming a foul, but there is no dice from the assorted officials on that one, and quite right too.
56 mins: That Espanyol changes takes place, with Garcia limping off and Alex Fernandez comes on in his stead.
55 mins: The right-footed Koke somehow manages to put in a corner from the right that appears to swing in, but it’s headed clear at the near post.
54 mins: Change ahoy for Espanyol too - skipper Sergio Garcia appears to have twanged something or other, and is signalling to the bench that he wishes to be withdrawn.
53 mins: Change for Atleti - Mario Suárez replaces Tiago in the centre of the park.
50 mins: Tiago somehow gets away without a yellow card again, chopping down Cańas on the Espanyol right. Sevilla whips over the cross, but it’s headed clear by a watchful defence.
Updated
48 mins: Wearing all black can be a dangerous move. You have to be pretty cool to pull it off. Johnny Cash managed it, as did the old bass player from Interpol, and Diego Simeone falls into that category too. Any other nominations?
46 mins: Casilla nearly gets in some trouble in the first minute of the half, taking a heavy touch from an unwelcome pass back by Victor Álvarez, but just gets there to clear ahead of Mandzukic.
The teams are out for the second half. Espanyol’s Colotto takes an impromptu shower in the water sprinklers on the Calderon pitch.
Half-time: Atlético Madrid 1-0 Espanyol
Espanyol finish the half with a rare attack as Sergio Garcia powers into the box from the right, but blazes his shot over the bar. Atléti have been very much on top without being totally dominant, and without looking massively threatening, but they certainly deserve their lead. Perhaps they will be saved having a strip torn off them at the break, which will be a relief to any players of a delicate constitution.
45 mins: Resistance broken, and you always thought that as long as they could stay onside and stop fouling someone then Atléti’s best chance of scoring would be from a set piece.
GOAL! Atlético Madrid 1-0 Espanyol (Tiago 43)
The first corner results in a minor scramble that is put behind again, and the second is half-cleared to Gabi around 35 yards out on the right. He loops over a cross to the far post, finding the rather unlikely aerial figure of Tiago who loops the header from whence it came, and it drops over Casilla and into the net.
42 mins: Cañas is easily dispossessed as Espanyol threaten to attack, and Atléti counter, but having worked the ball to Turan on the right, his cross doesn’t beat the first man and it’s a corner.
40 mins: Atléti work a bit of space on the edge of the area, Garcia gets it with his back to goal but can’t quite wrap his foot around the shot on the spin, and it goes comfortably wide.
39 mins: Mike MacKenzie is dismissive about the idea of a goalkeeping subplot: “I can only hope that Dermot Currigan was being sarcastic about subplot. How often does any #3 keeper get to play? Does OPTA have stats? Once De Gea takes over from Casillas I bet the #2 and #3 Spain keepers will never get on the pitch but at least they have a good spot to watch from.”
37 mins: Mandzukic goes close after doing superbly to beat two defenders in the air at the far post, getting his bonce on a whipped cross from the left but can only direct it about a foot wide of the post. Casilla wasn’t getting anywhere near that one.
36 mins: An email! Word from the outside world! Praise the lord, I thought I was alone! Charles Antaki raises a salient point:
“Apart from the three points to be won here, Atlético players will be conscious that they can help establish themselves in the transitional Spain team. Raúl García has been given a trial or two, and Koke has run about a bit in vague imitation of Xavi. But the surprise is Jaunfran, now well established in the international side despite looking like a 45-year old lorry-driver’s mate (but a very fit and skilful one to be sure).”
34 mins: More iffy work from Casilla, belting out of goal to clear up the danger from a cross, but only succeeds in creating more danger as Mandzukic just gets there first, leaving the Espanyol keeper punching thin air like a challenger trying to land a right hook on Floyd Mayweather. Atléti claim a corner, with Simeone quite literally biting his lip on the touchline, but the final touch clearly came from Mandzukic.
32 mins: Ansaldi lucky not to go in the book for a lateish, highish challenge out on the Espanyol right on Javi Lopez. This after Casilla had waved and flapped at a Koke cross.
31 mins: More ‘decent, but not quite...’ work from Atléti as Garcia slips it down the left channel for Mandzukic, but the big Croatian striker can’t quite reach it, and in his attempts to retrieve the ball concedes a throw on the left side.
29 mins: Atléti really are directing their attacks down the right. Juanfran again barrels down that flank, reaches the byline and cuts it back, but the ball eludes the massed ranks of the home attack and is cleared.
28 mins: Another cross from the Atléti right, another offence spotted by the officials, this time a sneaky, Shearer-esque push from Mandzukic.
26 mins: A minor scramble in the Espanyol goalmouth is curtailed for a reason that isn’t instantly obvious, but the replays show that the linesman had spotted a marginal but correct offside, Raul Garcia being the man who had strayed beyond the last man.
25 mins: Some smashing defending from Colotto, as the Espanyol defender gets a flicked header to a Juanfran cross from the right, taking it away from Mandzukic who was winding up for a thunking header netwards at the far stick. A goal saved there, one suspects.
24 mins: Tiago gives away a rather soft free-kick around 35 yards from his own goal, and when it’s delivered the referee blows up for a foul in the area barely before the ball got off the ground. Perhaps there was some tussles and jostles, but that smacked of a man compensating for a mistake.
22 mins: For lack of much interesting happening on the pitch...
Subplot here battle between keepers to be Spain's number 3. Casilla in last few squads, Moya possibly reckons could / should be him.
— Dermot Corrigan (@dermotmcorrigan) October 19, 2014
20 mins: The first grumbles of discontent from the Calderon crowd, as Garcia attempts a rather ambitious clipped pass over the top to Mandzukic when there were easier and probably more productive options on. The pass thunks into the shins of the first defender.
19 mins: Vasquez, on loan from Real Madrid, is taken out by a rather beefy challenge from Tiago. He goes down as if sliced at the knee, but one imagines he’ll be fine in a second.
17 mins: Spectacular attempt from Turan, trying an audacious scissor kick at the far post, but he didn’t quite catch it right and it drifts wide of the far post.
16 mins: Atléti break towards goal through the middle and Koke fires in a low shot, but Casilla tips it round the post, when it was possibly heading wide anyway. From the resultant corner, a couple of Atléti players are caught offside again, which has happened a couple of times in this nascent encounter. One perhaps wouldn’t expect that sort of dithering from a side recently on the sharp end of Simeone’s tongue.
13 mins: First chance for Espanyol, and it’s a good one, as Sergio Garcia causes palpitations in the Atléti defence down the left, crosses low to the far post and Lucas Vasquez ghosts to meet the ball, but Moya is solid and manages to batter the thing away. A good save, but he dithered a little on his line and could well have cut that off before it reached the Espanyol man at the back stick.
12 mins: Ah! A spot of action! Raul Garcia finds himself behind the visiting defence on the left side of the area, but his cross gets some unhelpful loop on it via a deflection and after a short burst of penalty area head-tennis, it’s cleared.
10 mins: You aren’t missing a huge amount here. Aside from Colotto bundling over the savvy Gabi in midfield, not a great deal of any consequence has happened.
6 mins: Time-wasting already from Espanyol? Casilla takes nearly a minute to take a goal kick, his ludicrously bright all-yellow kit causing headaches across the Spanish capital. There’s some disgruntlement with the inflation or otherwise of the ball, and it’s eventually changed.
5 mins: Bright start this from Atléti - after all, you’d probably fix up and look smart after getting a bollocking from Simeone in the week. Gabi swings over another corner but this one comes to little.
3 mins: First big chance for Atléti, as a corner from the right is flicked on at the near post, finding Turan at the far who shoots powerfully towards goal but it’s kept out by a brilliant save from Kiko Casilla in the Espanyol goal. The keeper then recovers to scramble the thing away as Mandzukic attempts to stick away the rebound. From the second corner Turan slots it into the net, but he was about three yards offside and the flag denies him.
2 mins: Espanyol, who of course usually line up in blue and white, are wearing their away kit, which is purple. That seems...a little daft, no?
1 mins: Quinton Fortune has decreed that only one team can win this, and it’s Atléti. The formalities of the actual football begin with Espanyol getting us underway.
Five minutes to kick-off, which by happy coincidence is about the time it will take to watch Andy Brassell discuss: Lionel Messi or Telmo Zarra: Who is the greatest goalscorer?
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A relatively meaningless stat for you now to enjoy...
75 - Atletico de Madrid have won more games against Espanyol than any other side in their top-flight history. Target
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 19, 2014
While you wait for the game to start, why not have a read of Sid Lowe’s piece on Liverpool and Real Madrid, who of course square off in the Champions League this week. It’s good:
The glamour was provided by their record signing: Laurie Cunningham, the West Brom winger, who arrived in 1979 for 180 million pesetas, £995,000. As one of the substitutes in the final, the defender Isidoro San José, recalls: “Madrid were all fight; Laurie was the fantasy.”
In fact, there was plenty of talent in the team: Carlos Santillana and Juanito were the greatest attacking threat, Uli Stielike played in midfield and alongside him, Del Bosque was all elegant strides and clever passing. But Boskov seemed not to trust the talent. Not against Liverpool, anyway. A month before, Madrid had been celebrating the league title on the pitch at Valladolid when news came through that a goal 15 seconds from full-time had given Real Sociedad the title instead and some players insist that the fear from that result was carried over into the European Cup final.
Injuries were certainly carried into it. García Remón was out, meaning that Agustín Rodríguez played in goal. Ricardo Gallego had only just got out of plaster and was in the stands. Stielike played despite a bad knee, and Cunningham, who had suffered a broken toe in November 1980, was not fit either. Like Stielike, he played anyway.
Team news
Atlético Madrid
Moyá; Juanfran, Giménez, Godin, Ansaldi; Gabi, Tiago, Koke, Turan; Raúl Garcia, Mandzukic. Subs: Mario Suárez, Griezmann, Raul Jiménez, Oblak, Jesús Gomez, Rodriguez, Miranda.
Espanyol
Kiko; Javi López, Fuentes, Colotto, Álvaro; Salva Sevilla, Cañas, Lucas Vásquez, Victor Álvarez; Sergio García; Caicedo. Subs: Pau, Álex, Stuani, Arbilla, Montañés, E.Bailly.
Referee: Iñaki Bikandi.
On your favourite podcast Football Weekly, there has been an occasional debate in recent weeks over who would be the hardest manager in the Premier League. Nigel Pearson seems to be a popular choice, for his silent, no-nonsense, disgruntled PE teacher air and the sense that if he wanted to, he could end you with a simple flex of a muscle. However, if we’re going to extend this competition to Europe, then Diego Simeone is very much a live contender. There’s a more malevolent menace to Simeone, something aided by the slicked back hairstyle that makes him look quite a lot like a young Vito Corleone, as portrayed by Robert de Niro in ‘The Godfather, Part II.’ And metaphorically speaking, Simeone very much gunned down Spanish football’s version of Don Fanucci last season, besting Real Madrid and Barcelona to win the league title.
This season hasn’t been quite as straightforward. Atléti haven’t exactly started badly, with five wins, a draw and a defeat from their seven games thus far, but they still sit in fifth place, behind the two giants after a pretty hefty squad turnover that of course saw Diego Costa, Felipe Luis and Thibaut Courtois, among others, leave for pastures better-paid. They were given a solid hoying by Valencia last time out and Simeone is, as you might expect, cracking the old whip, giving his squad a few home truths during a closed training session last week, in which his players didn’t show the required levels of intensity. “I don’t give a shit about your national teams,” he apparently said. This is not a man you want to annoy, as Don Ciccio discovered. Or something.
Interestingly, Atléti are rumoured to be considering the appointment of one Peter Kenyon to their board, the former Manchester United and Chelsea head honcho being good pals with Miguel Ángel Gil, the son of former Atléti president and all-round bad guy Jesús Gil. According to reports in Spain, Kenyon will initially be appointed to a commercial role, but could have a crack at getting involved with the running of the team too, at some point.
Atleti keeper Miguel Angel Moyà said this week: “In the dressing room here they’ve warned me that Espanyol’s a team we traditionally find very hard to beat.” However, there’s something in the air that might suggest a big win for Atléti in this one.Sure, they haven’t been super-inspiring, but then again Espanyol haven’t torn up too many trees either, and haven’t won away from home since March. With the rocket he fired up his players’ collective botties in the week still very much fizzing, you wouldn’t be surprised if Atléti, to quote noted and respected rapper Clint Dempsey, banged a few Gs in this one. Stay tuned.
