Suarez’s Late Strike Sends Atletico Top Of La Liga
Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez struck two late goals to give the La Liga champions a 2-1 win at Getafe on Tuesday after the hosts were reduced to 10 men late in the second half.
Atletico started with Suarez and Antoine Griezmann upfront, while Getafe had Jaime Mata and Jose Macias in attack. The home side were looking to cause an upset against the champions.
The home side went in front on the stroke of halftime with a header from Stefan Mitrovic after Atletico keeper Jan Oblak had uncharacteristically spilled a cross.
It was the first time Getafe had scored against Atletico in 1,583 minutes of LaLiga football, ending Diego Simeone’s remarkable run of never conceding against his side’s neighbours in the league since taking charge of the club in December 2011.
Getafe played the final phase of the match with 10 men after Carles Alena was shown a straight red card in the 74th minute fora dangerous challenge on Atletico substitute Matheus Cunha.
But the 10 men could only hold on for so long and Atletico levelled when Suarez controlled a cross from substitute Mario Hermoso with his right foot before blasting the ball into the net with his left in the 78th minute.
The Uruguayan then snatched the winner in added time in dramatic fashion.
Suarez escaped his marker Mitrovic to head home a cross from Sime Vrsaljko to score his second goal of the game, sending the fans into a frenzy.
The victory took Atletico top of the standings on 14 points from six games, a point ahead of Real Madrid who have a game in hand, while Getafe are bottom with no points.
“Every player at the top level has to learn to live with criticism but what I do is never give in, I’ll never get beat down by criticism,” Suarez told reporters.
“Above all I’m happy because of the circumstances of the game and that we managed to turn the scoreline on its head after. We still need to improve and solve a few things that we are not doing well but things will improve because the season has barely started.”
La Liga results
Getafe 1-2 Atletico Madrid
Athletic Bilbao 1-2 Rayo Vallecano
Levante 0-2 Celta Vigo
Chidi Nwoke/La Liga.
