Atletico Madrid v Sporting de Gijon – Half time Report
The match kicked off with style as Atletico Madrid, who recently defeated Inter Milan to win the UEFA Super Cup, were all ready to face Sporting de Gijon.
Amongst the major players featuring in Atletico’ first eleven were Diego Forlan and Kun Aguero; both also feature in their international sides; Uruguay and Argentina respectively. Unfortunately for Aguero, he didn't really get too much time on the field throughout his stay in South Africa as Diego Maradona had other plans for the Argentinean squad.
However, it was Forlan who was hailed as a hero for Uruguay. He was the man who totally undid all the odds and was finally able to take his team to the semi finals, single handedly. Interestingly, all the South American sides qualified for the quarter finals and it was expected that the world cup winners would also be from South America, but only one team from the region reached semi finals and it was Uruguay, led by the very amazing, Diego Forlan.
Atletico have been in great form recently along with their number 7, Forlan who was able to outsmart all other players during his stay in South Africa. He bagged one of the most prestigious awards in the game history; the golden ball. With this golden ball winner included in the squad, Atletico Madrid were all set to perform at home and play against Sporting Gijon in their first match of the Spanish La Liga. Earlier, they didn’t have a dream start last season, when they were able to win only 3 games in their 8 opening matches. Still, they were the ‘only’ Spanish side able to defeat the current Spanish champions, Barcelona.
Gijon on the other hand, were experimenting with a few players while their star player Novo was left on the bench. He didn’t feature in the first half. Atletico dominated the game as expected and had their moments throughout the first 45 minutes. The match took an early jump for the home side as Jurado found the net in the 11th minute. After this first goal, it was all Atletico as they tried to keep the ball and the center midfielders seemed to simply toy with Gijon's defenses and they kept on creating chances. Soon, Forlan got his chance from right outside the box but the shot was struck well wide and thus could not find the net. Later, Jurado, Aguero and Forlan combined well in the opponent's half and were about to score until Aguero waved offside and the move came to an early end.
Aguero outplayed everyone else as he was no match for the defenders of Gijon. In the 37th minute, he found the ball at his feet in the right flank. It was Godin who was able to pass him the ball while he made a run into the 18 yard box. 4 of Gijon's defenders were trying to stop the Argentinean but he was just too good for them and was able to cut his way through to the penalty area finally finding Forlan at the far post. Forlan made no mistake and scored the second goal for Atletico to make it 2-0. During the match, Alberto Rivera managed to earn himself a yellow card while trying to block Jurado.
There was a little last minute action as Perea was fouled right outside the 18 yard box and Aguero had the opportunity to make it 3-0. However, the Argentinean struck the shot right at the wall. Then the whistle blew and the teams went into their rest rooms for half time with the score in Atletico Madrid's favor.
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