Atlético in the goals

Atlético de Madrid past their first pre-season test with flying colours against  Gimnástica Segoviana, trouncing the opposition by 0-8. The Municipal Stadium Albuera in Segovia set a special scene for the supporter who came along to cheer on the rojiblancos. In the first half Manzano went with a first eleven made up of mainly homegrown players; Iago, Manquillo, Regalón, Pulido, Filipe Luis; Koke, Raúl García, Saúl, Noguera; Pedro and Collado. It didn’t take long for Atlético to convert their superiority in to goals and after six minutes Regalón put them one nil up from a corner. Seconds before the goal, the home keeper and the the crossbar managed to keep Pdro out. Luis Filipe snuck into the action after controlling a ball on his chest and finishing to make it 0-2. The Brazilian then provided the pass for Pedro to test the keeper, but this time the blocked effort fell to Collado front of goal who made it 0-3. And just before the half-hour, Pedro found the prize he had been looking for,with a neat goal coming from another Luis Filipe assit (0-4). At half time, Gregorio Manzano changed the full 11 as well as the formation, opting for the 4-4-3 with Joel, Valera, Regalón, César Ortiz, Antonio López; Paulo Assunçao, Gabi, Fran Mérida; Juanfran, Reyes and Diego Costa. Shortly after the restart, the Brazilian Diego Costa made it 5-0 from a great piece of individul play by Jose Antonio Reyes in the 50th minute. Six minutes later the Andalusianalmost made it six with a strike from outside the area but the home keeper pulled off a big save. However, on 66 minutes he could do nothing to stop the cunning of Juanfran who took the ball around him to put the ball into the empty net. Four minutes later he provided the pass for Fran Merida to hammer home the seventh night. Fran Merida stole a ball inside the area and played in Diego Costa, who sat the opposition goalkeeper on the floor and scored into the empty net to make it eight, which closed the scoring in this first friendly of the summer. At the final whistle many fans invaded the pitch to be photographed with their idols, who willingly ablidged to requests for autographs and photographs with hundreds of young fans. In the subsequent statements to the media, Gregorio Manzano was happy to have seen the work done in training being put in to pratcie on the pitch, 'I liked the fact that what we’ve been practicing in training has been implemented on the field.'
 
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