An Antoine Griezmann-inspired Atletico Madrid have moved equal-top of the La Liga table after seeing off Athletic Bilbao 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon on Sunday night.
Both sides looked to get off to the best possible start with early attempts on either goal. Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco and Aduriz came close to opening the scoring. Adruiz particularly looked threatening and beat both the usually reliable Diego Godín and José Giménez partnership, requiring Jan Oblak to make the save.
Athletic’s good start to the match would finally land them the goal they deserved with a routine corner kick finding Aymeric Laporte, whose left-footed shot from close-range found in the corner of the net.
Fouls began to slow the tempo of the game, however it did not stop Athletic from attempting to double their lead just before half time with Beñat drawing an impressive save from Oblak following a shot from outside the box.
While it looked more likely Ernesto Valverde’s men would get a deserved second goal, it was Atléti who took advantage of Athletic’s wasted opportunities and for the second time, a goal was scored following a corner. In-form Saúl Ñíguez reacted quickest to Koke’s delivery and scored a header from close-range to level the score on the stroke of half time.
Again, both Atléti and Athletic came out firing at the start of the second half, with Aduriz and Saúl having chances to nab the lead. However, both shots were saved well by Oblak and Gorka Iraizoz.
Ángel Correa, who replaced Carrasco in the second half, found Griezmann in space outside the box, with the Frenchman curling in a powerful strike that left Iraizoz no chance.
Atleti end the matchday level on points at the summit with FC Barcelona.
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