Villa makes scoring debut
The 'Guaje' marked his debut with a goal in the Atletico Madrid 2-0 victory over UD Las Palmas in the Estadio Gran Canaria. Cristian Rodriguez got the second goal as the side ended preseason with a victory.
UD Las Palmas 0-2 Atletico Madrid
UD Las Palmas: Barbosa; Ayhtami, Atouba, David Garcia, Nauzet German, Tato, Momo, Deivid, Mayor, Javier Castellanos and Valeron. Also played: Delev, Chrisantus, Tana, Castle, Artiles, Carlos and Jesus
Atletico Madrid: Courtois, Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Filipe, Mario (Tiago, 58 '), Gabi, Koke (Óliver, 58'), Arda (Cristian Rodriguez, 69 '), Diego Costa (Raul Garcia, 78') and David Villa (Leo Baptistão, 69 ')
Referee: Hernández Hernández
Goals:
Min.40. 0-1: Villa
Min 88. 0-2: Cristian Rodriguez
The team traveled to Gran Canaria to face the Union Deportiva Las Palmas and wanted to leave a good impression and keep improving in the last friendly of preseason. Simeone’s boys went to the Gran Canaria Stadium in good shape and left having put on a good show. As always the game was marked by intensity from the first minute until the last.
Every time the ball was near Barbosa area the partnership of Villa & Diego Costa looked dangerous. They came close to opening the scoring after a back heal from the Spaniard was finding its way to the Brazilian but a good intervention from Barbosa snuffed out the chance.
In their first few minutes as a partnership, the two forwards showed their hunger. Half way through the first half Villa tried his luck with his left foot forcing the goalkeeper to deflect the ball out for a corner. At the other end Courtois didn’t have much work to do but every time the home side approached the Belgian he remained focused to keep a clean sheet, demonstrating that with the shot from Delev that he managed to block.
The home side were struggling to hold back the visitors and could do nothing on the 40 minute mark when Villa picked up a ball a few feet from the edge of the area, he turned well and unleashed a shot on Barbosa’s goal but the keeper could do nothing to prevent the debut goal for the new Atletico number 9.
The top scorer in the history of the Spanish team recorded his first Atleti goal in his first game. He tried again from a similar position after the break but this time the ball went over the crossbar.
Óliver also started
With half an hour left to play Simeone began to make some changes with Tiago and Ólivercoming on for Mario and Adra. The youth, who like Villa had not been on the South American Tour, was desperate to get in to the action. The youth set up Diego Costa in 72 ', but the striker's shot was deflected away by a defender.
The second goal of the game came in the final stages of the game as Cristian Rodriguez took advantage of a ball from Filipe Luis, who yesterday completed his 28th birthday, to double the lead and close the team's third consecutive win by the same score: 0-2. A good end to a usefull preseason which see the side ready to take travel to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan to take on Sevilla in next weekend`s league opener.
