Madrid: Diego Simeone’s decision to leave out Diego Costa was vindicated as Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao and Costa’s replacement Alvaro Morata scored in the 2-0 victory.
Morata had been the one to sit on the bench against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday but his winning goal as a substitute earned him a start against Bilbao and the Spaniard delivered again. “The changes were good for the team,” said Simeone on Saturday.
“It was a great performance.” Morata’s finish in the second half at the Wanda Metropolitano, after Saul Niguez had opened the scoring, secured Atletico a comfortable win that puts them above Real Madrid in the La Liga table and level on points with Barcelona. The postponement of the Clasico due to unrest in Catalonia gave Simeone’s side the chance to close the gap on the top two and sustain momentum from their gritty win in the Champions League.
Morata had rescued Atletico against Leverkusen but the decision to omit him, and now Costa, suggests Simeone feels there is a need for fresh thinking up front. Since missing the first two games of the season with a thigh injury, Costa had started all 10 thereafter, despite managing to score only two goals, one of them from the penalty spot.
It remains to be seen if Simeone will leave him out for long but Correa was the provider for both of Atletico’s goals while Morata’s smile after coming off late on suggested he thought his was a job well done. “Correa did very well, he showed what he can do,” Simeone said. (AFP)
