Atletico Madrid faced Levante today in their first match of 2015. Atletico Madrid came into this match sitting in third place, just three points behind Barcelona. Atletico Madrid has never lost to Levante on home ground and they planned to not let this match be the first time. Fernando Torres, who is on a two-year loan from AC Milan, was not in today’s lineup.
The first goal of the match came early in the 18th minute for Atletico Madrid by Frenchman Antoine Griezmann. Guilherme Siquiera came through the left side of the field and put in a cross into the box where Griezmann managed to find it and head it into the back of the net. Griezmann has been in great form ever since his summer transfer from Real Sociedad.
Right before halftime, a free kick cross found Diego Godin inside the box who headed it across to Ardan Turan who put it in the goal with a diving header. Turan’s goal was disallowed because Godin was offside when he headed the ball towards Turan. Atletico Madrid went into the half up 1-0.
The second half began with a bang as Antoine Griezmann put in his brace in the 47th minute to give Atletico Madrid a 2-0 lead. Mario Mandzukic managed to put in a header which seemed like it was going to go in until Diego Marino deflected the ball out. But Griezmann found the ball and headed it into the goal. Marino managed to get up fast to block Griezmann’s header but the ball still managed to be inside the goal enough to be counted as a goal.
Nabil El Zhar managed to put Levante’s hopes up in the 62nd minute after a hard low cross from Ivan Lopez found El Zhar inside the box where he managed to put it into the left side of the goal. Ardan Turan showed off his wondrous ball skills as he embarrassed Nikos Karabelas with a nutmeg.
Diego Godin was able to shut down Levante’s hopes of equalizing the match on the 82nd minute as he managed to head in a great cross from Tiago to make the score 3-1. The match ended with Atletico defeating Levante 3-1, putting them in a tie on points with Barcelona. However, Barcelona still has their match tomorrow against Real Sociedad. As we have seen before, anything can happen in this league.
(Feature image: Getty Images)