La Liga: Levante 2 – 0 Atlético

Atlético drop precious points in Valencia

Posted by Derek Maaijen on May 4th, 2014 44 Comments

Atlético lose to Valencia (MARCA)

Atlético Madrid’s second of consecutive road trips to Valencia resulted in a 2-0 loss to Levante. The home side were never dangerous, but won the game through an unfortunate own goal by Filipe Luís and through a series of saves by the excellent Keylor Navas.

Just 8 minutes into the game a corner by Levante came off of Filipe’s chest and bounced into the goal past a surprised Thibaut Courtois.

Atlético should have equalized a few minutes later, but Keylor Navas did well to block Raúl García’s shot, while David Villa wildly missed the rebound. Other than a strike by Toby Alderweireld later on that was all the Rojiblancos produced in the first half.

At half time Simeone introduced Arda Turan and Adrián, and Atleti immediately created a number of chances. Within the space of a minute, Arda had three chances to score, but on his first two attempts he was blocked while the third one was headed wide.

Filipe Luís nearly made up for his mistake, but his shot was blocked by the excellent David Navarro. And a few moments later Diego Costa came within inches of guiding in a Diego free kick, but the ball just wouldn’t go in for Atleti. And when the ball did end up between the posts, then there was always Keylor Navas to intervene, like he did magnificently to deny Toby Alderweireld again.

With twenty minutes left Levante scored from their first opportunity, when Víctor Casadesús and David Barral combined. The latter received the ball from the left wing and slotted the ball past Courtois.

Atleti didn’t give up yet, but Arda and Diego again found Navas in their way. Our best opportunity came in the 77th minute when Adrián found himself in a great position to score, but the forward curled the ball against the post.

There was another oppportunity late on, but Tiago fired just wide as the game ended 2-0. Atlético, with Real Madrid now two games behind, are still top of the league, but will most likely need to win the remaining two games to grab the la Liga title. With Sunday’s result even more will be on the line during our final game of the season at Camp Nou, when a Barcelona victory will see the Catalans jump over us in the table.

But first we have Málaga coming up next week at the Vicente Calderón. Partido a partido.

Atletico Madrid News 24/7


Levante	2 0	Atlético
Filipe (o.g.) 8'
Barral 69'

	Liga BBVA
	Ciutat de València
	04 May 2014
	17.00 CET

Match Preview

Team Lineups

Navas

López

Vyntra

Navarro

Juanfran

Sissoko

Simao

Diop

García

Barral

Casadesús

Substitutes used

Ivanschitz (58')

Sergio (71')

Ángel (80')

Courtois

Alderweireld

Miranda

Godín

Filipe

Raúl García (46')

Gabi

Tiago

Koke (61')

Villa (46')

Diego Costa

Substitutes used

Arda (46')

Adrián (46')

Diego (61')

Match Stats

Possession
27	73

Shots
6	23

On Target
3	9

Corners
2	7

Fouls
20	19

Yellow Cards
2	3

Red Cards
0	0

Colchonero in SF

Devasted but come on guys- with this win it would’ve been 10th win in a row. 9 in a row is an absolutely amazing result. we will have a full week to prepare to Malaga.

this is atleti- no one should be surprised.

If on the last day Barcelona can’t win title with win Against Atleti- I firmly believe they would rather have Atleti win the title than Real. It’s going to be one hell of a next couple of weeks for us true Colchonero fans!!!

IN CHOLO WE TRUST
Silchas

the line up for this match was terrible. why raul garcia and david villa? why not Arda and Adrian.
But now it’s too late. The string continues we can’t win in Valenica by Levante since 2007. But we can still win laliga and Real must win all games and thats not so easy as it sounds.
Matthijs

It hurts like hell, but I am proud of Atletico and all of the Rojiblancos, keep faith!
Ali

Levante president has been paid by Real Madrid for not watering the pitch before the game that’s why the ball bounced so fucking much!! Fuck you real! You’re such a disgrace to spainish football!!
Ahmad Hossainy

we are still depending on ourselves
we were allowed to slip once .. and we did
we still need 2 wins to win the title, the only difference is that it’s more difficult now to have a guard of honor before the Camp Nou game, but that’s all right .. Barca have suffered a lot this season, let’s spare them this one !

in another bad news, Atleti B lost today and will have to play relegation playoff to stay in Segunda B (third division)
disappointing especially if we knew that the goal this season was to promote to Segunda (2nd division) to join
Real Madrid B & Barcelona B which would have brought many benefits in both financial and sporting levels,
but it was very difficult after the trio Oli-Manqui-Saul left them to join the first team, but yet they should have done much better than the 16th place
Farzad from Iran

ohhhhh,,,,nooooooo,,,we lose one finals
EC

Valencia have started very very poorly.
Rowly

Typical!!!

Do clubs really offer each other incentives in this day & age, disgraceful if so particularly if it goes unpunished. But I don’t blame the pitch, it was the same for Levante & they played some decent stuff 1st half while we just lumped it towards Costa, 2nd half we played more football & looked a lot better. We looked sloppy at times, sign of tiredness I guess, and fragile at the back but we still created enough to have gone in ahead at half-time, as usual Keylor Navas was top drawer and kept Levante on top. Just one of those days BUT it is still in our hands. Lets move on & concentrate on Malaga next week.
EC

Valencia have now settled down and have just had by far the best chance of the game. Parejo headers onto the post when he should’ve scored
EC

Mathieu 0-1 yas!!!
EC

Real Madrid have created more chances but Valencia have created 3 very good chances and could be further ahead IMO
EC

Damn 1-1 Ramos again
EC

Yes! Yes! Yes! 1-2 Parejo great goal
Valinia

i dun blame the pitch or referee though they really suck.. the lads seem exhausted. hopefully they will do well against malaga n barca after a one week break. come on guys we can do it! vamos!
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

Dude wtf ? Real Madrid needs to win or play draw.. Not Valencia, if Madrid loses this game, then Barca will be champion… Madrid needs to win or play draw so they can be up Barca.. In this case Barca will give us the 3 points, so Real Madrid cannot be champion..

Serious, how can you guys support Valencia NOW ?
EC

ofcourse Iam supporting Valencia. how can our most direct rival dropping pts be a bad thing. Also do not think for a second Barcelona are going to lie down to us on the last day.
fact is if Real win or draw we most likely need to beat Barcelona. if Valencia win then we only need to draw with Barcelona.
EC

ffs 2-2
EC

I will die if Real win this. a draw isn’t too bad
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

YESSSSSSSSSSS RONALDO SCORED, thers is HOPE again for Atletico !!!!!!! YES YES YES, Barca will never allow Real Madrid to be champion.. So the 3 points at camp nou are for us !!!! yes !!!
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

Hahaha EC no.. If Barca defeats us, then Real will be champions. And Barca will never ever allow that. So they are FORCED to give Atletico the 3 points =)
EC

Real Madrid 2 – 2 Valencia Full Time.

Damn that late goal by ronaldo. A draw doesn’t make that much difference. hopefully Real drop another opts b4 the end of the season
EC

of course there not forced to give us pts, besides barca will go 2nd us 3rd if they beat us so they will be fighting for that as well.

That goal means Real are still right in the title race. we would almost certainly be finishing ahead of Real if Valencia had won there.
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

That draw saved Atletico Madrid. Real has 83 points now, and Barca 85. Real will most likely win against Valladolid. So they will climb to 86, ( they have 1 game less ) And Atletico will win against Malaga ( home ), and at the last play-game. Barca has no hope left, if they win, then Real Madrid will be champion, and i can’t imagine that Barca wants Real to be champion, so they must let us win..

Serious are you even Atletico fan ?
EC

ofcourse Iam thats why i want our rivals to drop pts you idiot. aim never going to cheer for Real. Iam not basing our season on the assumption that another team is going to let us win. Especially when said team will go above us in the league with a win.

how can u say that goal from ronaldo saved us. b4 this game the league was in our hands and it still is.
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

If Valencia won that game, then Real Madrid couldn’t be 1st anymore. That means Barca could’ve be champions, by just wining the next two games.

Barca played 0-0 at Vicente calderon, that means they have a better average. So a 1-0 win means Barca will be champions.. But because of the late 2-2 by Ronaldo ( who SAVED us ) ther is still hope, the next win on Valladolid, means Real Madrid has 86 points. So they’ll pass Barca who has 85… So why would Barca defeat Atletico at home then ? If they do, they’re sworn enemy Real Madrid will be champions, and they’ll do anything to prefent that.. So They must let Atletico win.

So again.. Are you even Atletico fan ?
Chewie

What we need to do is:

1 – defeat Malaga
2 – park the bus with Barcelona
3 – defeat Real
4 (next season) – annihilate Levante at least 4-0

All is still in our hands. And Real still has to beat Valladolid. After all three leaders dropped points this time who can be sure it won’t happen again?
So we rest and remain calm.
Atletico9

You both got good points. Can we say 2-2 was fine. Now we have to beat malaga and hoping Elche can have points against Barca. Then we can fight a draw home at Camp Nou at all. Real can ofcause also lose som points against their opponents.
EC

Iam just looking whats best for us, there is no Guarantee that Barcelona will let us win. Maybe Tata and/or the players will pick pride and proffesionalism and try to beat us.
we can now still finish 3rd but if Real had been beat there 2nd would’ve been worst result (presuming we beat malaga)
EC

so Atletico9 and Chewie you would like Real to drop pts judging by your posts?
it would seem AMR MISIR MUKADAFFI* just wants Real to win there next 3 games
Rowly

Bit if a strange weekend but following the Barca & RM results drawing with Levante would have been a massive result for us, missed opportunity…
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

Real Madrid NEEDS to defeat Valladolid.. If they wipe ther, then Barca has a Title hope.. And Barca plays at Camp nou against us…. A 1-0 victory on us, means they are champions.. So a win on Valladolid means the Title hope for Barca is gone.. And they’ll do anything to prefent Real by being Champions, they prefer Atletico to be champions !!
EC

serious question. if it all goes down to the last day will the two title deciding games be played at the same time?
Hmm

I think a draw was the ideal result for atleti. Considering the top 3 win the remaining matches until the last game, a loss for real would’ve meant barcelona still has the chance to win the title without depending on anyone else to drop points, making the last game for atleti way harder. A draw for real today on the other hand, means that atleti can tie against barcelona and still be champions, and leaves barcelona with no chance of being champions if real win their last game. In that case barcelona wouldn’t have a good reason to beat us.
Chewie

There’s no point in further speculations because we still have to win the next game, so do our rivals. Let’s continue a week later.
kris

I could care less about Real and Barca, all we need to do is beat Malaga first, then beat Barca and Real Madrid again before the season ends and we win. We need four points to win the league. That’s all we need from these two games. We have gotten 88 pts from 36 games, it’s possible to get four from two games, right? BELIEVE!! Forza Atleti!
kris

Amir, I completely disagree with you that Barca will just throw the game and let us win if it comes down to it. You can’t and should NEVER rely on any club to let you win. We saw today what Levante did to us even though they had nothing to play for, they still went out and fooked us up. Football is about winning. Winning is all that matters especially right after we knocked Barca out of the Champions League. In the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, U.S had a game that they could’ve lost to not let Mexico get through, but they played and won the match which helped Mexico for the playoffs spot against New Zealand. Need I remind you that the USA and Mexico hate each other probably just as much as Barca hate Real Madrid.
Amr Misir Mukadaffi

Oke Kris. Do you remember the game Ajax – Barcelona ? At the CL group-stage… Barca had nohting more to play for. They were 1st.. And it was a race between Ac Milan and Ajax. Barca played against Ajax, and they let Ajax win.. Ajax even had a red card, but Barca still didin’t do anything to win ther. They preferred Ajax above Ac Milan. And i can now this, because i was ther at the Amsterdam Arena.
Ahmad Hossainy

@Amr : Real 2-2 Valencia is by all means a good result for Atleti
if Real have won tonight we would needed to win the next 2 games, but now, a win against Malaga & a draw against Barca will give us the title
and my friend, Barca will never ever let us win

maybe you would have a point if Real at least drawn in Valladolid next Wednesday,
in that case, Barca will need to win their next 2 games to win the title, which will make our game against them very very difficult
BUT I will still wish them to drop points in Valladolid and practically lose their chances of winning the title
beside being our rivals, and being arrogant, cheaters, violent and criers among many other bad features,
beside all that, they really don’t deserve to La Liga this season
losing from Barca twice and losing once and drawing another against us then ending up being champions !
it will be a nightmare .. will not be fair at all

But if Barca won the title it will be very fair,
if it happened, they would have defeated Real twice and defeated us once and drawn once,
and they were the leaders for about 25 weeks

I want Real Madrid to get out of the race as soon as possible
I want it to be between us and Barca
I’m praying for Atleti to win La Liga, but if it went to Barca it won’t kill me

and Kris actually said an important thing that appear many of us forgot :
we need to beat Real Madrid in Lisbon,
so how could we do that if we are so afraid of Barca ?!
if you want to be a champion you have to earn it

and as Chewie said : let’s win Malaga game first (which is very difficult) then see what happens

The important thing is that Atleti fans will sleep happy-ish tonight

and by the way Amr :
a true Atleti fan never cheers Cristina Ronaldo
Ratchet

Also, Barca will have a lot to prove after their recent run of rather poor results by their standards. Crashing out of the Champions League, home draw against Getafe etc. No way in hell would they let Atletico win at the Nou Camp to stop Real Madrid, they would want to end this season in style, for sure.

This result is fine for us.

The max points we can get is 94.
Max Barca can get is 91.
Max Real can get is 92.

So, a win against Malaga will mean we need to win or draw (which we have done, twice, this season) at the Nou Camp, and we will win the title. Real had a great chance to close the gap on us and they failed. If they did win, we would need to get 6/6 points to win, now it’s 4/6.

It’s back in our grasp.
Randy German

Lets clear this up, If we beat malaga then draw with barcelona, we are champions! Simple as that…
AaX

Valencia almost won to drew 2-2 with Real Mrd. We are going for a win at Camp Nou but with this can still afford the draw. Keep in mind that Celta and Elche is gaining form and points. GOD Willing ! Victory, To Calderon!
AaX

MOST IMPORTANTLY as Simeone said it : It will give Atletico the tension break for much needed recover and Actually would Fire Atletico Up to the Final moment and minute of Champions League. This Light will spark at this weekend against Malaga in the Vicente Calderon until it Fills and Light Up The Stadium of Light. GOD Willing ! To History
AaX

Irregards, When it comes to it I still hope Barca will feel having less incentives of trying to win against us when their ‘rival’ almost assured of victory. Nevertheless, I would assume that these final games will be played at the same time, so managers and players will start only focusing to win and not losing And hope that we are smart and hard working (intensity) enough to capitalized on this. But a Win should be a Great Signicant. Peace
epoy

Keylor Navas picked the worst time to audition to be Courtois’ replacement.