A great Atlético conquered Mestalla
Atlético de Madrid beat Valencia fairly in a spectacular second half. Griezmann opened the scoring, Cheryshev tied, and in the second half, Carrasco and Torres decided the match to with their goals.
VALENCIA 1 – 3 ATLÉTICO DE MADRID
Valencia: Diego Alves; Cancelo, Mustafi, Santos, Siqueira; Feghouli, Enzo Pérez (Danilo, 46’), Javi Fuego (Negredo, 84’), André Gomes; Cheryshev (Rodrigo, 61’) and Alcácer.
Atlético de Madrid: Oblak; Juanfran, Giménez, Lucas, Filipe Luis; Koke, Gabi, Kranevitter (Fernando Torres, 63’), Saúl; Vietto (Carrasco, 68’) and Griezmann (Óliver Torres, 88’).
Referee: Álvarez Izquierdo (Catalonian Committee). Red for double yellow to Santos (56’ and 80’). Booked the home player Feghouli (78’); and the visiting Vietto (64’).
GOALS:
0-1. 24’. Griezmann finishes a measured shot to the left post after a ball stolen by Vietto and a pass from Koke to the French.
1-1. 28’. Cheryshev crosses in front of Oblak after a header from Alcácer.
1-2. 72’. Fernando Torres pushes into the net a corner kick by Koke which was headed by Giménez in the 6-yard box.
1-3. 85’. Carrasco, in a solo goal, shoots with his left leg and beats Alves.
Atlético de Madrid arrived at Mestalla with clear ideas, to dominate Valencia and create danger. After a quarter of an hour, the approaches to the goal of Valencia were more dangerous. First, Vietto twice warned and then Oblak saved a shot by Cheryshev until Griezmann, who played a fantastic game, decided to open the scoring with a goal from the top. However, Valencia was not willing for the match to be an easy one for our team and Cheryshev equalized shortly after. Until the end of the first half, only a couple of shots by Vietto and Griezmann that went out.
The script for the second half was the one set out by Atlético. Overwhelming dominance, scoring chances and it could be felt that the goal was close. Vietto had it with a shot that Alves saved and touched just enough to divert it to the crossbar. And, above all, when Simeone decided to burn his bridges with the substitutions, first with Fernando Torres and shortly afterwards with Carrasco. And it was spot on because Torres was in charge of scoring the 1-2 and the Belgian closed the match with a tremendous effort that stunned Alves.