Athletic Club 3-0 Atletico Madrid: Second-half blitz sees hosts down Simeone’s side

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 their 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. 

And they carried that momentum into Saturday’s 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 were left frustrated by their 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’ 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, though the introduction of Julian Alvarez – who was once again greeted by boos from the travelling support – provided some promise, with the Argentine 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. 

Basque Country blues continue for Atleti

Diego Simeone’s side suffered their first defeat of the season, though Atleti’s recent struggles in the Basque Country meant it was hardly unfamiliar territory. 

After winning four of their five LaLiga trips to Athletic between 2014 and 2017 (D1), Los Colchoneros have since lost six of their last nine away league meetings with the Basque side (W2 D1). 

In fact, this defeat extended Atleti’s winless run away to Basque sides in LaLiga to six matches (D4 L2) – their longest such run under Simeone. 

Indeed, Athletic were full value for the victory, generating 1.35 expected goals (xG) from their 11 total shots to Atleti’s paltry 0.86 xG from 15 attempts.