After spending close to €200m during the summer transfer window, Atlético will be hoping to close the gap to Real Madrid and Barcelona at the top of the table. However, the 2-2 draw against Villarreal on the opening day of the campaign suggests there is still work to do if they want to achieve that goal.
Against Girona, two of the new arrivals – Robin Le Normand and Julian Alvarez – were included in the starting line-up, while Conor Gallagher and Alexander Sorloth had to make do with a place on the bench.
It was Alvarez who registered his side’s first shot, but it travelled well wide of Paulo Gazzaniga’s post.
While there were few clear-cut chances before the break, the hosts were the more threatening, as Samuel Lino twice forced Gazzaniga into action before Pablo Barrios missed the target. Girona, for the most part, kept them at arm’s length, although that changed shortly before half-time.
A searching Le Normand ball appeared easy enough to deal with, but with Alvarez pushing to get on the end of it, Gazzaniga handled the ball outside the box under pressure.
Surprisingly, referee Luca Zufferli decided to only give the goalkeeper a yellow card instead of a red, but justice was soon served as Antoine Griezmann buried the resulting free-kick into the bottom corner.
In contrast to Atletico, Girona’s biggest concern has been outgoings rather than incomings over the summer, with them losing Savinho, Aleix Garcia, and Artem Dovbyk. Still, it was new striker Abel Ruiz who was their danger man prior to the break as the former Braga man twice forced saves from Jan Oblak.
It had little effect, though, as Atletico found themselves two up within minutes of the restart.
Gazzaniga was again involved for all the wrong reasons, somehow failing to get a touch on Marcos Llorente’s albeit fierce strike from outside the area even though it was straight at him.
From then on, Girona dominated possession, with Diego Simeone introducing Gallagher for his debut as he looked to contain his opponents. However, the visitors were unable to regularly trouble Oblak, who was easily able to grasp a Bojan Miovski attempt.
No team is able to see out a lead like Simeone’s Rojiblancos, and it ultimately proved to be a serene evening for the hosts, adding even more gloss to the scoreline when Koke finished off a swift counterattack in injury time. In a further boost, this was Atleti’s first clean sheet in seven home games.
Meanwhile, given their summer departures, it will be hard for Girona to match their exploits of 2023/24 when they qualified for the UEFA Champions League – they have just one point to their name after two fixtures this season, scoring only one goal.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Robin Le Normand (Atletico Madrid)