With the incentive of securing a third-straight La Liga victory and avenging last season’s double of H2H blanks, Atlético Madrid flew out of the traps at the Estadio San Mamés, and thought they had taken the lead inside the opening 10 minutes. But VAR was on hand to prevent Álvaro Morata ending his three-game goal drought, with Yeray Álvarez being clipped in the lead up. Aside from that, a largely uneventful first half drew to a close with a grand total of one shot on goal.
There was a real sense that the action could only improve after HT and it transpired to be that way too. Having been denied earlier in the evening by VAR, Morata played a huge role in Atlético’s opener, teeing up Antoine Griezmann to stroke home his first league goal since August. What followed certainly wasn’t a game for the football purists, with its stop-start nature stemming any momentum either side were managing to gather.
Having won none of the last three games against Athletic in La Liga, Atlético would’ve been all too aware of the threat their hosts posed in the latter stages. Atlético had to survive a late scare as Reinildo Mandava was initially adjudged to have blocked Dani Vivian’s effort with his hand, but as the referee pointed to the spot, VAR intervened. After a quick glance at the pitchside monitor, his glaring error was realised and to the great relief of Atlético, the penalty was overturned.
It was a heart-stopping stand at times, with a plethora of blocked shots and clearances from the visitors through nine lung-bursting, cramp-inducing minutes of stoppage time, but Atlético held on to secure their first successive trio of league victories since April 2022. As for Athletic, defeat leaves them facing the very real prospect of ending the weekend outside of the top five.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Álvaro Morata (Atlético Madrid)
