Copa Del Rey: Atletico Madrid vs Espanyol – Second Half Report (Part 1)
With the second half starting, both the coaches looked satisfied with their teams. At first, it looked as if Atletico Madrid were going to make a change after the dismissal of Jose Antonio Reyes but their coach was happy with the formation he was playing.
However, it was clear that Simao was to fall into the midfield to help the team in both defence and attack.
Atletico Madrid came out with a defensive strategy. The visitors were ready to blast the Madrid side off as they deployed Callejon in place of Javi Marquez to add another goal scorer into the team. Now, Espanyol were playing 4-3-3 with Javi Marquez joining
the front two in order to score more goals.
The Madrid side had almost 9 men behind the ball as they tried to defend right outside their 18 yard box. It was like one-way traffic for them as they relied too much over counter attacks and also the pace of Sergio Aguero who was the only player standing
at the tip of Atletico Madrid’s half. The Catalan side were ready to breach through the Madrid defensive walls as they deployed three different cannons to bombard Atletico Madrid down with goals.
The game looked to be quite physical as more yellow cards started to come during the second half. It was the “dangerman” Tomas Ujfalusi who got himself another yellow card, taking his tally to five for this season. He also got a straight red after powering
down the Argentinean maestro http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Victor-Ruiz-c36094 Torre also got a
yellow card as he tried to stop Simao from passing the ball onto Sergio Aguero.
The game became even more physical during the second half. There were dangerous tackles flying around all over the pitch as Atletico Madrid were defending well with 10 men to keep their one goal advantage intact. However, Espanyol looked to have other plans
as they camped outside the Atletico Madrid 18 yard box and whenever they could not find a space through to make a move inside the danger zone, they shot the ball out from wide which always tested the Madrid goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-de-Gea-c10463. The Spanish goalkeeper was
made to go through a big test as Espanyol bombarded shots towards him to find the equalizing goal. However, the youngster did not panic and performed the duties well.
After the hour mark, the game totally changed. Atletico Madrid tried to counter attack as Tomas Ujfalusi gave a wonderful long ball to the Argentinean striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sergio-c33030 Aguero. The Atletico Madrid number 10 was the only one playing up front after Jose Antonio
Reyes picked up a red card. The home team were relying only on one striker who was barely seen during the second half. However, he did try to make a move forward but was often left alone and found himself trapped between the Espanyol centre backs.
To be continued in Part 2...
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