The ex’s law was present in the most anticipated match of the day in Spain. Luis Suárez, who was cut from Barcelona last summer through a call from the recently arrived Culé coach, Ronald Koeman, became his executioner by scoring the 2-0 with which Atlético de Madrid defeated Barca this weekend.
Suárez thus reached four annotations in the season, the fourth highest figure, and wrote another record in his career, as he has scored the 31 teams he has played against since he reached the Spanish first division in 2014. His The celebration was a simulation of a telephone, dedicated to Koeman, who thus suffered his third defeat in the last six games (he only beat Levante last Sunday).
One more goal from Thomas Lemar completed the triumph of Atlético, which reached 17 points and tied Real Madrid at the top of LaLiga, although the meringues have the absolute first place because their goal difference is +12 by +5 of the mattresses.
Atlético de Madrid left their goal in zero against Barcelona for the third time in a row and it is the first time in the history of direct confrontations between these two teams that they achieve it. In addition, they have four consecutive games without losing to the Catalans, with two wins and two draws in LaLiga, the best streak since the period between September 2004 and December 2006, when they achieved three wins and two draws.
“In other games there has not been much difference, but now Messi is not there. The rival was different, he proposed with good possession of the ball, but from the order we were finding spaces to hurt them ”, reflected Diego Simeone, Atleti coach.
The Argentine team equalized the lead thanks also to the fact that Real Madrid fell 2-1 on their visit to Espanyol, which meant that the meringues lost their undefeated and accumulated three games without winning, after falling 1-2 in the Champions League against Sheriff Tiraspol and 0-0 against Villarreal on matchday 7 in Spain.
With this defeat, Madrid remained within its historical limit of 18 games without losing as a visitor in LaLiga, a figure that had already reached between 1996 and 1997, in 2016 and now, between 2020 and 2021. It has never exceeded that figure as Yes, Real Sociedad have done it with 19 between 1979 and 1980, Atlético with 20 in 2017 and Barcelona with 21 and 23 between 2017 and 2018 and between 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Karim Benzema stood up for Madrid when they lost it 2-0 and scored his ninth goal of the season to move away at the top of scoring, as his closest pursuer, Mikel Oyarzábal, stayed at six.
Benzema’s quota, in eight games, had only been achieved in this century by seven other elite forwards: Samuel Eto’o, David Villa, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Radamel Falcao García and Diego Costa.
But a third team is in the dispute for the Spanish leadership. It is about Real Sociedad, which has the same balance as Real and Atlético de Madrid: 17 points, five wins, two draws and one defeat, although those of San Sebastián have a goal difference of +4, behind the two Madrid teams .
Imanol Alguacil is the coach who has Real Sociedad on top and back in a European competition within the Europa League, where they are third in Group B behind PSV and Monaco. In addition, it has the experience of David Silva, former Manchester City captain, and Nacho Monreal, former Arsenal player, as well as its scorer, the Swedish youth Alexander Isak, 22 years old and trained at Borussia Dortmund.
The top 5 in LaLiga are completed by Sevilla and Osasuna, closely followed by Rayo Vallecano and his surprising start to the season led by Radamel Falcao. For its part, Barcelona fell to 9th place in the table with 12 points, the same as Betis and eight away from the relegation zone.
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