La Liga 2018-19: Sevilla 1-1 Atletico Madrid: 3 players who impressed the most
Sevilla drew with Atletico Madrid 1-1 in a La Liga match at Seville yesterday. It was a clash between the 2nd and 3rd placed teams in the league table and was a fiercely contested one. Sevilla scored through Wissam Ben Yedder in the 37th minute to take a 1-0 lead, but Atletico equalized through Antoine Griezmann just before half time.
Sevilla had the upper hand in the match with 55% ball possession and 15 shots against Atletico’s 12. Atletico remain in the 2nd position in the league table with 35 points from 18 matches, whereas Sevilla have 34 from the same number of matches. Barcelona extended their lead over Atletico to 5 points with a victory over Getafe last night.
Let us take a look at the 3 players who impressed the most in the match:
1. Antoine Griezmann:
Antoine Griezmann has been the talismanic players for Atletico for quite a few years now and again showed his class by scoring with a stunning free-kick yesterday. The Sevilla goalkeeper was left stranded as Griezmann’s inch-perfect free-kick found the left corner of the net. This was his 11th goal of the season and 123rd overall for Atletico.
Griezmann started on slow note in the first half and did not get enough of the ball from the Atletico midfielders. Saul Niguez was a bit off-colour in the first half and Atletico could not create any notable movement in the first 15-20 minutes. However, Sevilla’s goal shook things up, and Griezmann gradually began to come to his own.
His confidence was boosted by that wonderful free-kick and he gave a much better performance in the second half. He began to fall back more frequently to the middle third to collect balls and also played some incisive passes to his teammates. He could have scored another goal but his shot from a very short distance was saved by the Thomas Vaclik, the Sevilla goalkeeper.
Saul Niguez also got involved in the attacks more frequently in the second half and combined with Griezmann to give the Sevilla defence some trouble. However, Sevilla remained the better team and had the better share of exchanges overall.