Athletic Club's second-half blitz destroys Atleti
Athletic Club secured a 3-0 victory over Atletico Madrid, with Nico Williams, Robert Navarro and Oihan Sancet all finding the net during a dominant second-half display at San Mames.
After opening its LaLiga campaign with back-to-back defeats to Sevilla and Barcelona, Edin Terzic’s side bounced back with a 2-0 win over Celta Vigo last time out.
It carried that momentum into this clash, despite a nervy opening spell in which Lee Kang-In struck the post with a low drive across goal after just three minutes.
Alex Baena then forced Unai Simon into a sharp save with a powerful rising effort after 23 minutes as Atleti began to gain a foothold.
Further half-chances fell to Giuliano Simeone, who dragged wide from a tight angle, and Ademola Lookman, who failed to test Simon from close range after being teed up by Simeone.
Pablo Barrios created another opening on the stroke of half-time, but his tight-angled effort clipped the right-hand post as Atleti was left frustrated by its own wastefulness.
That profligacy proved costly as Athletic emerged from the break with renewed energy and broke the deadlock just 31 seconds into the second half, with Nico heading his brother Inaki Williams’s cross through Jan Oblak’s hands.
Navarro doubled Athletic’s advantage just two minutes later, cutting smoothly past Alejandro Grimaldo before curling a fine finish into the side netting.
The hosts had Atletico pegged back from there, but the introduction of Julian Alvarez, who was once again greeted by boos from the travelling support, provided some promise, with the Argentinean forcing Simon to parry his low strike in the 71st minute.
Sancet added gloss to the scoreline on the stroke of full-time, pouncing on a loose ball inside the box before coolly finishing into the bottom-right corner.
Atleti boss Diego Simeone's side was strong throughout, finishing the match with 15 shots, with five of those on target, but he conceded that its slow start after the break cost it any points.
"The match was as we saw it. We produced a good first half," he said.
"In the second half, we lost the match in just five minutes; in fact, I believe that two minutes were enough to change everything.
"Then two minutes of lost attention and focus passed, and an inability to settle situations that we should have dealt with better.
"Athletic took advantage of that moment of lost focus. They deservedly won the match.
"The match was going well for us before the start of the second half. But we did not handle the situation well during two minutes, and that is the responsibility of the coaching staff.
"We are in the phase of building the team. And we will go through complicated situations. We started well, but those two minutes today dealt us a blow, and we have to respond to it."
Simeone was asked why Alvarez had not joined the rest of the substitutes for Atleti's usual post-match drills, but he was not impressed by the line of questioning.
"Alvarez did not go out to warm up after the match? Really? I have no comment," he said.
"Apart from Julian's chance, we did not have clear chances. Athletic Bilbao will compete for the top places this season."
