Correa’s surprising statistic after the goal that gave Atlético the victory at San Mamés: “Talisman”

Atlético de Madrid have won in the last minute at San Mamés on Saturday (0-1). Simeone’s men played a dull game against Athletic, but when both teams were drawing level, Ángel Correa appeared to unleash the euphoria for Atlético Madrid. Sorloth stole the ball from Lekue and the Norwegian giant assisted the Argentine to score in the 92nd minute.

CHANGES WORK FOR SIMEONE

After coming up empty a few days ago against RCD Espanyol, the team coached by Diego Pablo Simeone arrived in Bilbao needing to make a statement. And this was even more pressing after the resounding victory that Barcelona achieved against Valladolid (7-0) and which increased the fight for the top spot.

To make matters worse, Atlético’s problems had accumulated in the run-up to this match. Digestive problems forced Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak out of the squad, leaving new arrival Juan Musso in the starting line-up, who had little trouble in the first half.

With the score at 0-0 at half-time, it looked like ‘Cholo’ Simeone was going to make some changes to his forward line, but he saved his fresh legs for later. However, he had a big scare 22 seconds into the second half, when Nico Williams hatched an attack that went through Oihan Sancet and then through the feet of Iñaki Williams, before returning the ball to his brother.

From left to right and then left again, catching the visiting defence off guard as they retreated. However, the VAR determined that Nico was narrowly offside and referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández ruled out everything that had happened. The thicket returned to both teams, with more fear than shame.

In the 60th minute, Reinildo Mandava had a good shot from the edge of the area, but the ball went wide of the right post. At that moment, Athletic manager Ernesto Valverde decided to make a couple of changes and his counterpart on the other bench got the bug, as Julián Álvarez left his place to Alexander Sorloth in the 71st minute.

The match entered a period of interruptions due to medical attention, first that of Josema Giménez after a bad fall and then that of Juan Musso in a crash. The substitutions for the ‘Txingurri’ did not give him any breathing room, but those of the ‘Cholo’ took effect when Antoine Griezmann was replaced by Giuliano Simeone and especially with the entrance of Correa in the 88th minute.

Not in vain, Correa himself scored the only goal of the afternoon four minutes after coming on to the pitch. Nico Williams made a long diagonal pass from the left wing towards the centre circle, where Lekue failed to control it and Sorloth stole the ball from him. The Norwegian striker sprinted and on the edge of the area passed the ball to Atlético’s number 10.

Correa nimbly dodged goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala’s charge and fired a first-time shot into an empty net to make it 0-1. This victory on the last minute allowed the Colchoneros to move up to eight points and follow in the footsteps of leaders Barça; meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao remained on four points in the middle of the Primera División table.

“I THOUGHT I WASN’T GOING TO PLAY”

Argentine Ángel Correa, who scored the winning goal for Atlético de Madrid against Athletic Club at San Mamés, thought that after his teammate Giuliano Simeone came on in the 85th minute, he would not come off three minutes later.

“I knew there was a change left, but there were only a few minutes left and I thought no, that Cholo was thinking of something else. In the end he called me and I went out with the faith that I can always have one. And luckily I was able to convert it.”the attacker explained into DAZN’s microphones.

Correa also pointed out that with this goal he showed the coach that “You can count on all of us and that we are all important”.

“Luckily the goal served to bring us a very important victory on a very difficult pitch. Against Espanyol we lacked the luck we had today, which we have had little of, but we converted it.”Correa congratulated himself.

surprising fact

At the end of the match, Antonio Ruiz chose Correa as Atlético de Madrid’s best player of the match. And after that, Pedro Martín revealed a surprising fact related to the Argentine striker of the red-and-white team.

“I remember that Atlético de Madrid has not lost in LaLiga when Correa scores”said the refereeing expert from Tiempo de Juego.

And he added: “Correa has been a talisman in 56 matches now. Atleti has 47 wins and 9 draws”.

WHATSAPP CHANNELS

If you want to find out about the latest sports news, the best moments of the programme or the most in-depth curiosities of Tiempo de Juego or El Partidazo, join our WhatsApp channels now by CLICKING HERE and CLICKING HERE.