On Friday, March 11th, 2022 João Félix continued his outstanding scoring in order to help the Atlético Madrid football club defeat Cádiz with a final score of 2 to 1 at home in this Spanish LaLiga League match prior to Diego Simeone’s squad heading to play Manchester United for their Champions League decider.
Following their struggles for the majority of the 2021 – 2022 football season, Atlético Madrid is playing at their finest in months with a current streak of 4 – straight victories in the domestic league only disrupted by their 1 to 1 home draw against Manchester United just 2 – weeks ago.
Atlético Madrid will travel to the historic and legendary Old Trafford Stadium on Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 for the 2nd – leg of their round – of – 16 contest against Manchester United.
“We are entering the final stretch of the season, when it is even more important to win,” Diego Simeone explained as he downplayed any good things that the win could possibly have on their next game.
Simeone goes on to say, “It is important for the league and only the league. The Champions League is another competition. On Sunday and Monday, we will start getting motivated for it.”
Félix scored his 5th – goal over his past 5 – games to put Atlético Madrid on their way to another win once again.
The 22 – year – old forward interrupted a bad pass by the Cádiz’s goal – tender, Jeremías Ledesma, and he smoothly curled in a strong strike from a very tight angle only 2 – minutes into this contest.
The host side was close to being left with only 10 – men during the 40th – minute of game action when Reinildo Mandava was presented a red card from the officials for a low and rough tackle, although the referee decided to switch it to a yellow card following a brief video review.
Álvaro Negredo scored an equalizing goal for Cádiz just prior to the halftime break as he headed in a cross – kick by Pacha Espino. Atlético Madrid’s defense somehow happened to lose track of Cádiz’s veteran star striker with 4 – attacking players all flooding the box.
As he watched his offensive attack struggling, Simeone called on Luis Suárez and Ángel Correa in exchange for Antoine Griezmann and Yannick Carrasco with just half an hour left in the match.
Suárez and Correa played a big role in Rodrigo de Paul’s game winning goal. Suárez passed over to his teammate Correa, whose shot was stopped by Ledesma, but the ball just so happened to fall in the path of De Paul who was charging the box. The Argentina midfielder directed the ball into the corner of the goal putting Atlético Madrid up 2 to 1.
Although Atlético Madrid was now ahead they relied upon a defensive stop by center – back José Giménez in order to protect the win. Giménez utilized his head to defend a shot by Luis Hernández following a bad attempt to clear the ball by the goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
Atlético Madrid ended up with 10 – players following their substitute Javi Serrano receiving a direct red card because he tackled Álex Fernández with only 2 – minutes of the game remaining.
That referee also had to send off 2 – members of Cádiz’s staff as well for their aggressive protesting during the final remaining minutes of the match.
With this latest victory Atlético Madrid moved into 3rd – place right in front of Barcelona. The defending champions are presently 12 – points in back of the leading Real Madrid football club as well as 4 – points in back of Sevilla who is currently in 2nd – place of the Spanish League. While Cádiz remains in the relegation zone.
Sources:
Wilson, Joseph. “Atlético beats Cádiz 2 – 1 before CL decider at Old Trafford”. The Associated Press. March 11, 2022.