La Liga, Vicente Calderon - Atletico Madrid 0 Villarreal 1 (Vietto 84)
Atletico Madrid’s 27-game unbeaten home run in La Liga came to an end as Diego Simeone’s side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to Villarreal.
The result leaves Atleti seven points adrift of Liga leaders and rivals Real Madrid, with Simeone’s men missing the chance to draw level with Barcelona, who were held by Getafe on Saturday, and suffering their first home defeat of 2014.
Villarreal were unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty kick on the stroke of half time, with Gabi Fernandez clearly playing the ball with his arm as the away side looked to create a chance in the box. Mario Mandzukic had a goal harshly chalked off in the second half for a foul at the back post, ruling out his header from an Arda Turan cross.
However, Luciano Vietto struck the decisive blow with just six minutes left to play, breaking through the Atletico backline to finish calmly past Miguel Moya. Receiving the ball in the centre of the Atletico half, he cut inside Diego Godin, leaving the experienced Uruguay centre back flailing, and cracked a fierce drive past Moya in the home goal. Not only did former Atletico goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo, who joined the Yellow Submarine after playing second fiddle to David De Gea and Thibaut Courtois, keep a clean sheet against his old club but match-winner Vietto was handed his senior debut by Simeone at Racing Club three years ago at the age of 17.
Vietto said after the match he was "eternally thankful" to Simeone for giving him his chance in Argentina." He trusted me. To debut as a professional is the most important moment for a player and I will be thankful for the rest of my life," he said. "We are very pleased with the performance and the result." "I'm very pleased because we've just beaten one of the best teams in Europe," Villarreal coach Marcelino told reporters after the match. "My players earned a well-deserved victory over a great side.
We've played well in other matches without winning. "We were able to obtain good results against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla but lacked the accuracy we had today in previous games. "I'm happy for the players as they're showing themselves to be a competitive team. Atletico started very strongly, but the game balanced itself out after the 25th minute. "We started well in the second half and looked to match our opponents. Vietto popped up with the goal which secured us a tremendously-important victory."
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