Atlético B win in Extremadura

Atlético Madrid B extended their winning run to three matches on Sunday with a 3-1 victory in Extremadura, a result that pushed the reserve side clear of immediate relegation trouble. With four games of the Segunda División B season left, the team sat 11th in the table, five points above the relegation play-off places.

The afternoon began badly. Extremadura went ahead after twelve minutes through a striker whose surname could hardly have suited the moment better, Golo, and for a spell the home side looked the more convincing. The reply arrived within five minutes: Roberto Batres reacted quickest to a rebound and levelled the score.

Atlético took control after the equaliser without immediately making it count. The breakthrough came with a little over ten minutes remaining, and it came from a name that would soon be far better known. Saúl Ñíguez, then a teenager working his way through the club’s youth structure, finished a counter-attack to put the reserves ahead. By that point Extremadura were down to nine men: Jorge Zafra had been dismissed with a straight red card and Yepes followed him after a second booking. When Aurelio was sent off late on for a foul on Borja inside the penalty area, the home team finished the match with eight players, and Fer converted the spot kick to make it 3-1.

The evening ended in ugly scenes off the pitch. Local supporters turned on the referee, Arias Madrid, who had to be escorted from the ground as objects were thrown from the stands.

Line-up: Iago; Regalón, Pulido, Atienza, Cantero; Fer, Sergio Marcos (62’ Joseph); Saúl, Batres, Mínguez (86’ Roberto); Borja (90’ Vítor).

Goals: 1-0 Golo (12’); 1-1 Batres (17’); 1-2 Saúl (78’); 1-3 Fer (pen).

Results like this one are the everyday texture of a reserve season: no crowd to speak of, a long trip west, and three points that matter enormously in the table and not at all in the news cycle. The value shows up years later, in a first-team squad list. Several of the names on this team sheet went on to careers in Spanish football, and one of them became a fixture of the Simeone era, the period covered in detail in the club history and in the legends gallery. More reserve and youth coverage from these seasons sits in the archive.