Spanish La Liga Half Time Report – Atletico Madrid 2-0 vs. Sporting Gijon
Atletico Madrid were scheduled to take on Sporting Gijon in the last game of the opening weekend of matches in the Spanish La Liga. The reason for this match being played much later than the others was due to the fact that Atletico were participating in the UEFA Super Cup midweek. It was a game that Atletico managed to win thanks to goals by Reyes and Aguerro. The team that they beat was none other than the current treble winning Italian side, Inter Milan, who were also the reigning Champions League winners.
Atletico were easily the stronger team going into the game and they were also the most in form. However, on countless occasions in the past, a team that has been counted out has gone on to stun the football world. That is the card Sporting Gijon were hoping to play tonight.
Sporting Gijon Line-up: Juan Pablo; A. Lora, A. Botía, G. Arnolin, R. Canella, S. Eguren, A. Rivera, De las Cuevas, Carmelo; D. Castro, D. Barral
The Atletico boss Quique Sanchez Flores named the following team: De Gea, Ujfalusi, Godín, Perea, Antonio López, Assunçao, Raúl García, Reyesm, Jurado, Kun Aguero, Diego Forlán
The match got underway with Atletico going on top. In the ninth minute, Aguero burst into the Sporting half and right before he could get a shot away the ball was hacked into the stands by the defence.
Two minutes later, the ball was in the back of the Sporting net and Atletico were one nil up. Jurado calmly knocked a shot in the top right of Juan Pablo's goal and put the home team one nil up.
Sporting, however, managed to add some pressure of their own later on, with Carmelo being at the centre of all the attacks that the away team launched.
After the goal was scored, the tides seemed to have changed direction with Sporting creating most of the chances and looking the brighter of the two.
However, the man who has always been there when his team needed him was there once again. Diego Forlan managed to make it two nil for Atletico against the run of play and in some style.
Forlan got the goal, but it was a goal that was constructed by Aguero. The Argentine drew two defenders towards him and when the defence did get the ball of the attacker, it fell as far as to the feet of Forlan, who had the simple task of knocking the ball into the back of an empty goal.