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| Atletico Madrid’s Spanish midfielder #14 Marcos Llorente and Atletico Madrid’s Argentinian coach Diego Simeone celebrate victory at the end of the Spanish league football match between Club Atletico de Madrid and Sevilla FC at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on December 23, 2023. Atletico won 1-0. (Photo by Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP) |
In a match postponed in September because of storms, Marcos Llorente scored the only goal one minute after coming on as a substitute at halftime.
Atletico Madrid climbed to third place in La Liga on
Saturday as they beat Sevilla 1-0 despite playing the last 20 minutes with 10
men.
In a match postponed in September because of storms, Marcos
Llorente scored the only goal one minute after coming on as a substitute at
halftime.
Llorente pounced when Sevilla centre-back Sergio Ramos
failed to clear a cross and fired past goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic from an
angle.
Not all of Coach Diego Simeone’s substitutions worked out as
well.
Caglar Soyuncu, who had replaced Koke four minutes earlier,
earned a straight red card after 70 minutes when he ploughed into Lucas Ocampos
from behind.
Simeone reacted by replacing Antoine Griezmann with defender
Reinildo Mandava.
That left the Frenchman, clearly irritated to be taken off,
still tied with Luis Aragones as Atletico’s all-time leading scorer with 173
goals.
Griezmann had arrived at the stadium wearing a T-shirt
bearing the image of the late Aragones.
Atletico climbed to third in the table, seven points behind
leaders Real Madrid and second-placed Girona but ahead of champions Barcelona
on goal difference.
Sevilla finish the year in 15th place, just three points
ahead of Celta Vigo in the first relegation place