La Liga: Atlético 0 – 1 Villarreal

Atleti slump to first league defeat at home this calendar year

Posted by Nick Poskitt on December 14th, 2014 8 Comments

Mandzukic had legitimate goal ruled out

Atlético Madrid looked on course to go a full calendar year without losing a league match at the Vicente Calderón, but they were undone at the last hurdle on Sunday evening after a disappointing 1-0 loss to Villarreal.

A late goal from Luciano Vietto with only 6 minutes left handed the visitors the victory, in a game that perhaps have gone a different way if not for some poor refereeing decisions by the match official.

A Mario Mandzukic header, after a fantastic piece of skill from Arda Turan, looked to have given Atleti the lead early in the second half. However the Croatian was alleged to have pushed the defender to the floor in order to get a touch and the goal was ruled out. Replays showed that there was hardly a push by Mandzukic.

Both teams took a long time to threaten the goalkeeper, and Atlético’s first real chance fell to Tiago, who saw his shot saved by the ex-Atlético goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo.

At the other end it was Cheryshev, involved in most of Villarreal’s attacks this evening, who tested Moya first. A break down the left wing forced our goalkeeper into a good save. However it was more luck than defensive prowess that Atleti went into the game level at half-time.

Right before the whistle, Uche was doing his best to set up a teammate with the ball deep in the penalty area, when the ball popped up and caught Gabi on the hand. It was a penalty, but the Pérez Montero waved away the Villarreal claims and blew for the end of the first-half.

Atleti brought both Cerci and Griezmann on in the second half to try and change things, but they had little impact on the game.

With Atleti pushing forward looking for the win, with the two substitutes supporting Mandzukic, they left space behind them, and it was an excellent ball from Cheryshev that set up the only goal of the game.

A nice pass through to Vivietto, the Argentine changed direction and left Diego Godín for dead. He rounded the man wearing the Atlético armband and side footed the ball around a helpless Moyá could only watch the ball sail past him into the back of the net.

The match was fraught with play-acting and poor refereeing, but in the end Villarreal seemed to do just enough to edge it. Uncharacteristically, Atlético weren’t as clinical with their set pieces, and as a result waved goodbye to the prospect of an unbeaten 2014 in the league at home.

Atleti remain in third, three points behind Barcelona, who drew with 0-0 with Getafe, and seven points behind Real Madrid.

Who under performed for you tonight? What did you make of our performance?

Atletico Madrid News 24/7


Atlético Madrid	01	Villarreal
		Vietto 84'

	Liga BBVA
	Vicente Calderón, Madrid
	14 December 2014
	19:00 CEST

Team Lineups

Moya

Juanfran

Miranda

Godin

Siqueira

Arda (76')

Gabi (70')

Tiago

Koke

Raul Garcia (63')

Mandzukic

Substitutes used

Griezmann (63')

Cerci (70')

M Suarez (76')

Asenjo

Mario

Ruiz

Costa

Paulista

J dos Santos

Trigyeros (63')

Cheryshev

Bruno

Vietto (89')

Uche (66')

Substitutes used

Pina (63')

Bardonado (66')

Rukavina (89')

Match Stats

Possession
57	40

Shots
11	7

On Target
2	4

Corners
7	2

Fouls
15	16

Yellow Cards
4	3

Red Cards
0	0

Ringo

I haven’t seen the entire game, but what I did see was a team not being able to push through today.
Even though Mandzukic scored that goal, the whole offensive game seemed off.
Juanfran was uncharacteristically unclinical. The last ten minutes Koke was unconvincing, although that might have been because of a lack of movement by his teammates.
There was just no sense of them being clinical.
The team might just need a break though, the players who didn’t have to adjust played a lot of minutes and I think the second half of the season will see some better plays. And perhaps a break mentally will come in handy even moreso.
Ahmad Hossainy

After a very tough game against Juventus 5 days ago in which Simeone did NOT make any sub, he repeated the same 11, except 2 changes, one of them is actually the only one he shouldn’t have made : Miranda for Gimenez, and the other was the 33-year-old Tiago against a very young and fast side like Villarreal, while our young and fast players, Griezmann, Cerci, Saul, Jimenez & Gimenez were on the bench or at home
There is no coach in the world would do that except Simeone

It was expected with this starting line-up to be outran and outplayed by Villarreal, even if they played on Thursday
after 10 minutes of the 2nd half I knew we will lose, there were a lot of one-on-one situations for Villarreal, and thanks to Moya and Cheryshev, the result would have been much more than 0-1

People are saying that some players need to improve, like Siquiera and Cerci, but the ugly truth is that El Cholo is the one who really needs to improve .. I’ve said that before and many disagreed with me, but now the whole world can see it :
he doesn’t know how to rotate, he doesn’t know how to play beautiful football (even Paco Jemez knows), and he has only 2 plays :
set-pieces and Juanfran-Arda duo on the right side

The responsibility is all on Simeone, even Miranda’s mistake last night, because Simeone made it clear that he will never lose his spot no mater how bad he plays and no mater how great Gimenez plays
Miranda will keep making mistakes, like the ones he did against Olympiakos, Valencia, Sociedad, the penalty against Celta and what he did last night, but yet he will keep playing
That brings a very bad memories to me .. it’s Luis Perea all over again !!

Remember when Simeone said after beating Chelsea 3-1 :

” I want to thank the mothers of the players for giving birth to them with big huevos ” ?!
well, it seems that he lost his huevos
Paco

I wold like to say that the worst thing last night is not the result. Vicente Calderon looks and sound diferent last night. This is not our castle anymore. Without real pasion and ultra support we lost something that made Atletico Madrid unique …
Ahmad Hossainy

It was more than lack of passion and support, the Calderon was divided between El Frente (who came without their flags and symbols, and without the 17 fans who were banned) and between the rest of the fans
El Frente sang : ” si no me quieres, no cantes mis canciones ” [if you don’t like us, don’t sing our songs]
and the other replied : ” Atleti somos nosotros ” [Atleti is us]
and : ” aquí están, estos son los hinchas del Calderón ” [here they are, these are the fans of the Calderón]

and the attendance was low, 37,000 … I guess many fans who bring their wives and kids to the games were afraid that some incidents could happen so they didn’t come

It’s not a bad thing though, the strongest weapon against the Ultras wrong actions is not the police or the sanctions from the football association, it is the rejection from the vast majority of the fans and from the community
when the Ultras feel that their verbal abuse is not accepted by the tens of thousands in the stadium, they will eventually stop

I really can’t understand why is it difficult to have passionate and enthusiastic ultras without being racists, xenophobic and disrespectful, and without having or at least without showing their political background ?!
why are they classified to right wings and left wings, why do they have to bring Franco’s flags to the Calderon, what does that have to do with football ?!
We need an ultras like Dortmund’s, the great yellow wall .. football and only football
And I think we are on that road now, last night even an “Antimadridista” scarf wasn’t allowed to the Calderon as we saw in videos on Spanish websites .. this is good, but we have to stay on that road until the end

El Frente are not allowed to the Calderon anymore, but that doesn’t mean they can’t come under a different name and with totally different behavior, and then everybody will welcome them .
AaX

Wrong starting lineup. The best players should be starting, that cost the team’s edge. Griezzman should be in instead Raul Garcia. Team only attacked through flanks (why?) which is worrisome if doesn’t immediately change or improve. Better Rotation PLEASE!
The defeat was unwarranted, but serve a useful warning. You knew better El Cholo.
starvs

Great post, Griezmann not starting against Juve and then also not against Villareal at home is just non-sensical at best.
Carpetano

1) Miranda is before Giménez, not just in terms of what he has accomplished with the team in recent seasons but also in quality over an extended period of time (in other words, he is higher up in the hierarchy). In your eagerness to include Giménez in the starting line, you forget Godin. If it was someone who potentially would have rested against Villarreal, it was Godin who has played all matches in the league and Champions League in the autumn and national team games. In the end, it was also Godin and not Miranda, who was badly fooled by Vietto. It is also Godin that goes away itself (he gets pushed and lose control of the airspace, but Pérez Montero does not blow for the free kick) when Vietto have their first chance of the second half. Miranda’s only mistake in the game is when he fails reception and Villarreal beats versus Atlético (again), but there Vietto get a bad first touch.
Ahmad Hossainy

before I reply, let me say that I love Simeone, and I wish he becomes our Ferguson and stays for a very long time,
but that doesn’t mean we can’t criticize him
and I will talk more generally, not just about Villarreal game

1- I said to my friends about Casillas playing with Spain in the world cup despite his bad performance : “it’s not his birth right” .. and I can say the same about Miranda
He is one of the best 5 CB in the world right now, but this season he is a different player
let’s never forget that he appeared on the radio in the summer and said : “there are many offers and I and my agent are considering them, and we are talking with Atleti to lower my buyout clause”
beside the outrageous action of asking his poor club to make a discount for some super rich clubs, his performance is very bad this season (forget about the 3 goals he scored), so he must feel that he could sit on the bench and lose both his spot in Atleti and his chance to leave for a richer club where he can get much higher salary, but Simeone is making him feel that it’s his birth right and he will never lose it

It’s not just my eagerness to give Gimenez more minutes, all the circumstances say so, Miranda is 30, Godin is 28, Gimenez proved himself in the world cup, the season is too long .. and if all of that is not enough, there are Miranda’s repeated mistakes

I wouldn’t mind if Gimenez took Godin’s place in some occasions, he also needs some rest, and yes, he also makes mistakes, but they are much fewer and much smaller than Miranda’s

His failed transfer is clearly missing with his mind .. and this is not acceptable

2- Tiago is very important for us, I can’t imagine what would have happened to us if his move to Chelsea succeeded, but he is over 30, so is Gabi, and both playing the whole 90 minutes vs Juve then starting vs Villarreal was a strange decision, at least Saul or Mario should have came on in the start of the 2nd half to give us fresh legs, but that didn’t happen
OK, maybe Villarreal didn’t outplay us, but they clearly outran us, we needed Saul, and we needed Griezmann much earlier

3- Cerci has many problems, one of them is his lack of pressure on the opponent as you said, but these problems will never be solved on the bench, or by playing 10 – 15 minutes in few games, most of them are when we are drawing or losing !
Simeone just keep putting him in the wrong place and wrong time, just like Oblak, who should have played vs Juve, and he would probably have kept clean sheets which would have given him a big load of confidence, but instead, he played him against Hospitalet behind 3 teenagers & Gamez in the back 4, who didn’t put any pressure on Alcaraz and let him take 2 shots and both went to the nets, and despite making a great save and despite Simeone praising him after the game, this must have shaken his confidence

4- Using Paco Jemez as an example was a kind of a sarcasm, but playing beautiful football and wining games is not that difficult, many coaches proved that it is possible, and I believe Simeone has the type of players who can achieve that
and playing beautiful football is not a luxury, entertainment football attract fans who in their turn can attract sponsors

5- Villarreal are good,but they are not great .. in fact, in some games they could be ridiculous and lose because their silly mistakes
” we lost because our opponent are good ” can be true for Real or Barca or Bayern, but I will never accept that for this Villarreal side
we lost because the team was tired as a result of lack of rotation, because Miranda is not that solid defender we know, because Griezmann -who scored a hat-trick vs Athletic- played only 30 minutes (and we also lost in Anoeta because he played only 5 minutes) !!

even the big win at San Mames was deceptive .. that was a horrible first half
Griezmann is not a number 9, he was lost and couldn’t do anything, Jimenez should have played as a striker and took the spot of either Saul or Raul
The early equalizer and the false penalty in the 2nd half killed the game, we stayed back and played on the counter which suits Griezmann very well

La Liga is not that competitive, and we have replaced those who left with great players, but this is the worst start for Simeone, last season we had 43 points after 16 weeks, and the season before we had 37, but now we have 35

I can understand the defeat against Olympiacos and the draw against Rayo & Celta because they were in the beginning of the season and Simeone was still trying to deal with the changes in the team (beside he was suspended in those games), but Villarreal game was after 5 months .. this is more than enough time to figure things out, but it seems that he didn’t yet .. and I really think that they are not that complicated !

let’s hope he will sort things out in the new year, and let’s see what will he do in the winter transfer market