Correa scores lone goal in Atletico Madrid win over Elche on Casilla error
Madrid, Aug 22 (EFE).- Nobody has been more of a factor recently for Atletico Madrid than Angel Correa and nothing was as harmful to Elche’s chances against the capital squad as the error committed by goaltender Kiko Casilla on which the Argentine wearing No. 10 scored in the 39th minute for the lone goal of the Sunday match.
The current La Liga champions, once again playing before a 40 percent reduced crowd of about 25,000 in the stands after the easing of coronavirus gathering restrictions, had just two decent chances in the encounter, while their rivals also got off a mere two shots on goal that were easily handled by the capital squad’s netminder, Jan Oblak.
In an otherwise rather lackluster match, which neither Atletico Madrid nor Elche really deserved to win, it was the Casilla mistake leading to Correa’s tally that was the deciding factor.
Rodrigo De Paul sent a beautiful pass to Correa from midfield whereupon Casilla left the net unguarded only for the striker to knock in the goal.
After the small burst of excitement in the 39th minute, things settled back down, although Casilla tried to make up for his game-losing mistake with two great saves just after the break, denying Jose Gimenez and Yannick Carrasco.
But apart from that, the fans didn’t get much else in the way of good competition as things devolved into an Atletico holding action to secure the win although Elche never gave up and kept up the semi-pressure which, let it be said, never really troubled Oblak.
Diego Simeone’s boys now have back to back wins at the start of the La Liga season after their 2-1 road victory over Celta Vigo last week, both of those tallies also coming from Correa, who seems to be in top form so far.
Lineups:
Atletico de Madrid: Oblak; Llorente, Savic, Gimenez, Kondogbia, Saul; De Paul (Trippier, m. 61), Koke, Lemar (Luis Suarez, m. 61); Carrasco and Correa (Lodi, m. 83).
Elche: Kiko Casilla; Palacios, Enzo Roco, Gonzalo Verdu, Bigas (Diego Gonzalez, m. 85), Mojica (Josan, m. 81); Fidel, Marcone (Carrillo, m. 81), Guti; Pere Milla (Benedetto, m. 63) and Lucas Boye (Morente, m. 81).
