Real Mallorca 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Atletico Madrid extended their winless run to five games with another stale performance away from home. Real Mallorca in contrast, were fired up and battled their way to a win.
Mallorca went head-to-head with Atleti in the opening stages, finding space down the flanks with their full-backs. It paid dividends just 16 minutes in, as Vedat Muriqi tapped in Jaume Costa’s pass across the six-yard box. Jan Oblak had spilled the shot before.
Atleti responded and Rodrigo de Paul set up Alvaro Morata, who put the ball in the net expertly, but it was ruled offside. That would be a point of frustration for Diego Simeone later on.
The home side coped well until the final twenty minutes when Los Colchoneros finally got some joy down the left. Antoine Griezmann’s two wicked balls were not finished by Morata this time though. Predrag Rajkovic producing a brilliant save on one occasion, Oblak stopping Amath Ndiaye’s effort at the other end.
The final whistle went shortly after Axel Witsel’s overhead kick was headed off the line and there was strange sensation that the two teams were wearing the wrong shirts. Javier Aguirre’s side were far more Atletico Madrid than Diego Simeone’s was.
The islanders move into the top 10 off the back of five goals in five games from Muriqi. Atleti will pause for the World Cup in sixth place, with a wait to see if Rayo Vallecano will shove them down to seventh, and a lot of thinking to do.
