La Liga: Lone goal earns Atlético Madrid first victory against Barcelona in 10 years, Real Madrid held to a 1-1 draw by Villarreal
Atletico Madrid defeated Barcelona for the first time in 10 years to move level on points with La Liga leaders Real Sociedad, leaving Barcelona nine points adrift of the top two.
Yannick Carrasco scored the only goal on the stroke of half-time, driving in from midway inside the Barcelona half with goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen having tried to beat him to the ball.
Barcelona also lost defender Gerard Pique to injury to cap a bad night.
The result leaves Barcelona 10th in La Liga with 11 points from eight games, nine behind Sociedad, who are only ahead of Atletico on goals scored, both having the same goal difference, although Atletico has a game in hand.
This win continued Atletico’s unbeaten start to the season and stretched their unbeaten run to 24 games in all competitions, while it was Barca’s third defeat in eight La Liga games.
Villarreal 1 – 1 Real Madrid
Real Madrid missed the chance to move within a point of La Liga leaders Real Sociedad as they were held to a draw by Villarreal.
Mariano’s header after just two minutes gave Real Madrid the ideal start.
However, the visitors struggled to put the game out of reach and visibly tired as the game wore on.
Instead, Villarreal’s effort got rewarded when a penalty was awarded late on when Samuel Chukwueze was brought down and Gerard Moreno slotted in the spot-kick.
Real Madrid who was missing a number of first-team players through injury would have to make do of the result which leaves them at fourth in the table even though coach Zidane thinks they deserved more.
