Sports
ATLETICO Madrid fought back to rescue a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night as Julian Alvarez’s second-half brace cancelled out Piero Hincapie’s opener.
The action-packed game which ended with both sides down to 10 men.
Atletico played more than an hour with a man short after midfielder Pablo Barrios was shown a straight red card for a reckless studs-up tackle from behind on Jeremie Frimpong in the 24th minute.
A well-organised Leverkusen dominated proceedings, with Alex Grimaldo and Frimpong proving a constant menace running up and down the channels and creating several chances.
This included a Nathan Tella goal that was ruled out by the VAR due to an offside.
After the home side’s goalkeeper Jan Oblak had made a string of saves to deny Leverkusen, the Germans managed to break the deadlock in added time before halftime with a headed goal by Hincapie.
This was after Hincapie who was left unmarked inside the box to meet a Nordi Mukiele cross.
Atletico came back better after the break when manager Diego Simeone brought defender Reinildo Mandava off the bench to replace left fullback Javi Galan who was struggling to contain Frimpong.
The Mozambique defender made a crucial sliding tackle to intercept a Frimpong attempt to rush into the box and allowed Atletico to launch a quick counter-attack that resulted in the equaliser.
Antoine Griezmann collected the loose ball and delivered a long pass through that Alvarez collected in his stride, beating German centre back Jonathan Tah.
Tah then slotted a tidy finish past the goalkeeper and just inside the left post in the 52nd minute.
Atletico took control of the action until Hincapie got a second booking for a foul from behind on Giuliano Simeone in the 76th, which led to the home side piling on the pressure.
Alvarez was passed through by substitute Angel Correa to beat the offside trap, ran round the goalkeeper and tapped the ball into the empty net in the 90th minute.
The victory — the 16th in their last 17 games in all competitions — lifted Diego Simeone’s side to third in the standings on 15 points, three behind second-placed Barcelona and six from leaders Liverpool.
Leverkusen, who saw their 11-game winning streak end, are sixth with 13.
“After Barrios’s red card) we knew that we had to multiply ourselves playing as a team.
“These are three very important points and help us to continue believing in what we are doing,” Alvarez told reporters.
“I’m very happy because it wasn’t easy for everything that happened in the game, being down a man, conceding a goal, it wasn’t looking good, but we played our game with humility,” he added.
“The equaliser came and in the last few minutes we knew we could find the win if we left everything we had on the pitch.” (Reuters/NAN)
22nd January, 2025.
C.E.
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