Espanyol pulled off a surprising comeback to beat Atlético Madrid 2-1 on the RCDE Stadium on the opening weekend of La Liga, SoftFootball experiences. The win not solely ended an eight-match winless streak in opposition to the Madrid facet but in addition gave the Parakeets a dream begin to the season underneath Manolo González.
The primary actual spark of the sport got here from the brand new summer season signings. Atlético’s Dávid Hancko virtually marked his La Liga debut with a towering header from a nook, however Espanyol’s goalkeeper Marko Dmitrović was alert, tipping it away.
On the different finish, Jan Oblak was known as into motion early, retaining out close-range efforts from Roberto Fernández and Leandro Cabrera to maintain Espanyol at bay.
Regardless of Atlético taking the lead within the thirty seventh minute by Julián Alvarez’s beautiful free-kick, curling over the wall and into the highest nook, Espanyol by no means misplaced hope. The Parakeets grew into the sport, with Javi Puado testing Oblak repeatedly and setting the stage for a late turnaround.
Watch Julian Alvarez celebration after scoring atletico’s opener posted on the membership official X deal with
The equaliser arrived within the 73rd minute after a cleverly labored Tyrhys Dolan free-kick prompted havoc within the Atlético field. Edu Expósito’s imaginative and prescient discovered Miguel Rubio, who calmly completed to degree the rating.
Then, in dramatic vogue, Pere Milla seized the second. After initially lacking a header, he made no mistake two minutes later, assembly Omar El Hilali’s cross and powering the ball previous Oblak to finish the comeback.
Watch Pere Milla’s Celebration after scoring the wining purpose for Espanyol posted by the membership’s official X deal with
SoftFootball understands that Atlético’s new signing Giovanni Raspadori made his debut within the seventieth minute, approaching to try to make an affect, however the Italian ahead couldn’t alter the consequence.
Espanyol’s resilience and late-game composure have been the distinction, whereas Atlético skilled an opening-day defeat underneath Diego Simeone for the primary time as Atleti supervisor, a troublesome begin for the LaLiga giants
