Atletico of Madrid closed the first round of the Championship with an important victory against Osasuna (1-0) thanks to a lonely goal by Ze Castro. The red and white team suffered one more time at their stadium to beat a team with identity: order, force and hard play. So hard, that the Navarros finished the match with seven players after suffering the sending off four of them. The ninety-odd minutes were enough to watch a lot of things: seven yellow cards, five red ones-which one of those was for the Atletico coach, Javier Aguirre, a failed penalty by Fernando Torres, a goal, several fights and David Lopez practicing as a goalkeeper. A high level show that finished with a victory for the red and white team, that puts the perfect end to the first round of Atletico in League.

There was revenge feelings after the Cup elimination and Javier Aguirre lined up the team that so good results gave at the last League matches, with Agüero and Torres as the forward couple supported by Jurado and Galletti. The formula didn’t work at the beginning and the red and white team demonstrated again problems to dominate a rival that seemed more conformist than at the recent Cup matches. The first half passed without a clear owner and the occasions both teams alternated them. Osasuna warned first with a lonely ball at the area which Webo didn’t reach for a few millimetres, and Maniche responded with a shot from the front that left away of the rival’s goal.

The locals progressed and ‘Kun’ Agüero was very close to open the scoreboard when he was alone against Ricardo, but the red goalkeeper was able to block the danger with a good move. At that moment football ended and the players of both teams entered in a dynamic confrontation which derived in several interruptions of the play. The pressure ended jumping to the bench and Javier Aguirre was the first one to be sent off that night at 30’. From that moment until the end of the first half we saw only a shot by Hector Font with the left that put some football to a hot and hard match.

The second half started with changes in Atletico due to the incorporation of Gabi instead of Galletti. Hardly eight minutes after the resumption Fernando Torres did one of the clearest occasions of the match after shooting from the small area a pass by Agüero from the right wing, but Ricardo, once again, blocked it with a gold hand at the last moment. The red and white team was dominating the match and that was a very dangerous for Osasuna, embodied in several occasions of Agüero and Jurado, but none of them was able to beat the red goalkeeper.

The inflection point that broke the match definitely was the penalty made by Cuellar to Fernando Torres when Torres was facing Ricardo. Penalty and sending off. Number ‘9’ was in charge of that penalty and he shot it very close to the right post, but the shot left away by a couple of centimetres. Fortunately, few after, Ze Castro achieved to place ahead the red and white team thanks to a shot from a reject that sent the ball at the bottom of the net. A hard shot from the front. Good news for the red and white team and bad news, very bad news for the team from Navarra, that loses their temper with the high number of sending off. After Cuellar, Soldado, Ricardo and Raul García followed him in just ten minutes. Ziganda has completed the changes and David Lopez didn’t any other choice that to practice as goalkeeper until the end of the match.

Finally Atletico signed a hard victory that was useful to add three gold points at the red and white account and that places them at European spots once fulfilled the first round of the National Championship League.


Photo: www.clubatleticodemadrid.com