Atlético de Madrid won this Saturday by a brief 0-1 on their visit to Marbella FC, with a goal from French striker Antoine Griezmann, and qualified for the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey MAPFRE, suffering more than expected for his errors in the outcome of a match played at the La Rosaleda Stadium.
In the Malaga fiefdom, the visitors approached the rival goal quite early with two unsuccessful passes, from both ends, looking for Julián Álvarez or Griezmann himself, who had previously caught the ball. But the first dangerous chance came in the 9th minute and came from the host team, in a weak header from Dorian Hanza.
The response was within a quarter of an hour in the boots of ‘Araña’ Álvarez, with a low right hand inside the area and on the half turn, after a corner kick, although centered and well caught by the local goalkeeper. Immediately afterwards, Giuliano Simeone tried his luck with another shot that did not worry Dani Martín in his goal, but as a prelude to the 0-1 lead.
A very long pass from the red and white defense allowed Simeone to advance down the right wing, head the ball to Griezmann and make a wall with him; ‘Cholito’ came up quickly and shot with his right foot, to which Dani Martín responded well, but the rebound was at the mercy of Griezmann himself scoring with a foreshortened volley at mid-height.
Suffering from that blow, Marbella then suffered the ‘Little Prince’ again, but the French star’s far left footed shot was caught by Dani Martín. From then on, until almost half-time, Diego Pablo Simeone’s men took over the rhythm and roamed the rival area without reward, having turned their attack towards the right side.
In the Marbella ranks, a header from Yac Diori just before going to the locker room was the highlight, although goalkeeper Juan Musso had hardly had any work. After the restart, Atlético was able to put distance between the 0-2 scoreline scored by Rodrigo de Paul with a low shot, but his action was annulled because he touched the ball with his hand during his steal.
The veteran José Callejón, former Real Madrid player and captain of this Marbella team that plays in Group 2 of the Primera RFEF, took his team on his back. The visitors were still strong up front, first with a shot from De Paul and whose rebound Griezmann did not reach, and then with a right foot from Conor Gallagher to the post, having combined with De Paul.
Although the local team bothered Musso little, ‘Cholo’ Simeone and his assistant Nelson Vivas did not trust him, extra time was not that far away. The first colchonero coach, expelled in the previous cup round, watched the game from the stands and Vivas was in charge of making the substitutions, with Alexander Sorloth and Ángel Correa as revulsive.
Between them they created a great opportunity to score in the 82nd minute, with the Norwegian bringing down a long ball and giving it to the Argentine, but he missed his shot from point-blank range after having dribbled past the Marbella goalkeeper. In two other counterattacks, already in added time, Sorloth himself wasted two more free shots and Atleti suffered.
However, the team coached by Francisco Beltrán lacked firepower, as not even the men coming off the bench gave Musso any work. The Argentine goalkeeper on loan from Atalanta lives in LaLiga EA Sports in the shadow of the Slovenian Jan Oblak, but he is the starter in this ‘KO’ tournament for an Atleti that completed its round of 32 event well.
TECHNICAL SHEET.
–RESULT: MARBELLA, 0 – ATLÉTICO DE MADRID, 1 (0-1, at half-time).
–ALIGNMENTS:
MARBELLA: Dani Martín; Olguín, Yac Diori (Yuezheng Du, min.84), Puñal, Genar (Jorge Álvarez, min.83); Ohemeng, Acosta (Bernardo, min.90+1), Duarte (Edwards, min.71), Soto (Peña, min.71); Callejón and Hanza.
ATLÉTICO DE MADRID: Musso; Molina, Le Normand, Lenglet, Galán; G.Simeone, De Paul (Correa, min.75), Barrios (Koke, min.46), Gallagher (Llorente, min.75); Julián Álvarez (Sorloth, min.60) and Griezmann.
–GOL:
0-1, min.16: Griezmann.
–REFEREE: Muñiz Ruiz (C.Gallego). He yellow carded Olguín (min.85) for Marbella, and Lenglet (min.62) and Galán (min.73) for Atlético de Madrid.
–STADIUM: La Rosaleda, 30,044 spectators.
–INCIDENTS: Ana Antic, daughter of the late former player and coach Radomir Antic, took the kick-off in the pregame.