On a scorching afternoon in Madrid, Atlético de Madrid finally got their first weekend home kickoff of the season, with over 60,000 fans packed into the Metropolitano to welcome the Rojiblancos and properly usher in the new campaign against fellow Champions League side Villarreal.
Two penalties, a red card, and a very complicated homecoming later, Atleti walked away with a point they were truthfully fortunate to get.
Let’s dive into the takeaways!
Slow start once moreBetween the heat and a lineup still finding its feet, this always had the makings of a sluggish start. Several of these players are only just back from a shortened summer, still getting reacquainted, and it showed.
For the opening hour, Atleti dominated the shooting charts on paper, outshooting Villarreal 11 to 6. But only two efforts were on target, and the underlying picture told a very different story. Villarreal had 23 touches in Atleti’s box to Atleti’s 19 in theirs. The visitors also created three big chances in the first half alone, while Atleti created zero. They even out-passed Atleti, 271 to 217. The Rojiblancos were a team going through the motions of control without really controlling anything.
Alejandro Grimaldo’s long-awaited debut arrived in the midst of it. Going forward, he looked every bit the player Atleti signed, with dangerous crosses, an exquisite early strike, and real quality getting forward down the left. Defensively though, Nicolás Pépé gave him a tough time, and he never quite looked settled. Given this is a player with barely a preseason behind him after his World Cup run, that is forgivable for now. The same goes for Marc Pubill, deployed at right centre-back in a defensive three that had never played together before. There were excellent moments, like a crucial block to deny Georges Mikautadze what looked like a certain goal, but also stretches where you could tell this was not his sharpest version.
In contrast, Morten Hjulmand looked like one of Atleti’s best players for the majority of the afternoon, right up until his moment later on. A first start in midfield and he was excellent in it, with just one misplaced pass all game, the most chances created of anyone on the pitch, and the second-most passes into the final third, all while filling in admirably for a rested Pablo Barrios. Lee Kang-in also got his first start, and while the energy was there, the end product was not quite: six shots in total, nearly all of them from distance without really threatening the way he did coming off the bench against Málaga. It’s worth remembering he is still working back to full match sharpness after a visa delay kept him out of the squad until just a couple of weeks ago.
Ademola Lookman, meanwhile, is confirming that the forward role is not the best use of him. It showed in how disconnected he looked for large parts of the game and it was not until much later that he started to have a real impact. After back-to-back games like this, it is fair to start asking whether this is the right role for him.
Villarreal were the much sharper side, and Atleti conceded 1.44 xG and three big chances in the first half alone. The Yellow Submarine quite easily could have been out of sight before the hour.
A series of flashpoints — and mistakesFor a long stretch, it did not look like Atleti had a goal in them. Shots were coming, but nothing clear-cut, and nothing that really troubled Villarreal’s goal.
Then, in the 59th minute, it did through one of the more unlikely sources imaginable.
It started with Koke, 34 years old and still pressing high to win the ball back near the edge of the Villarreal box, setting the whole sequence in motion. The ball eventually found its way to Giuliano Simeone, who laid it back to Pubill on the edge of the box, and the young Spaniard conjured a moment of individual brilliance, curling a left-footed effort into the top corner. The same corner, almost the same technique, as Kang-in’s goal against Málaga. Must have been taking lessons, huh? Pubill’s development is one to genuinely keep an eye on this season. After breaking into the national team last year and lifting the World Cup, this is the year for him to establish himself as one of the best centre-backs around, and starting like this is an exciting sign.
However, the flip side was that the lead lasted just six minutes. Hjulmand, excellent up to that point, had a rare lapse: losing possession, trying to win it back, and clumsily tangling legs with Tajon Buchanan in the box. Gerard Moreno made no mistake from the spot and, just like that, Villarreal had their tails up, taking the game to Atleti in a way that made it feel like something more was needed from the hosts to stay ahead.
Diego Simeone reacted immediately, sending on Marcos Llorente for Koke, Barrios for Kang-in, and, to a chorus of whistles, Julián Alvarez for Pubill, shifting the shape toward more of a back four and pushing forward. But just over ten minutes after the first penalty, Villarreal were awarded a second, and a genuinely brutal one for Atleti.
Robin Le Normand appeared to have two hands on Mikautadze as the striker got his shot away, an infringement that the referee did not flag as a foul in real time, only for VAR to intervene long after play had moved on. Shockingly though, not only did that hand Villarreal a second penalty (which Mikautadze slotted away himself), it also cost Le Normand a red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, a ridiculously-harsh case of double jeopardy. Up to that moment, the defender had genuinely been having a strong afternoon after his okay-ish game against Málaga, and starting to look like a promising back-up once Cristian Romero entered the lineup. This now looks like it will have to happen sooner rather than later.
Down to ten men and 1-2 behind, Simeone still pushed the side to go and find a winner, but the response from the bench told its own story. Bringing on José María Giménez for Lookman was about adding a body at the back more than adding another attacker, a nod to just how dangerous Villarreal had looked on the counter all afternoon, and a sign Simeone was not about to leave Dávid Hancko as the only senior centre-back exposed to that threat.
What did work was through Álex Baena. Lively from the moment he replaced Rodrigo Mendoza at halftime, he kept probing for a way through Villarreal’s resistance, and in the 85th minute, he found it: a superb through ball that put Giuliano clean through to finish smartly and drag Atleti level at 2-2.
Baena is seemingly discovering the form that Atleti signed him to offer, and his resurgence is integral to this side. As for Giuliano, this was a player who had spent most of the afternoon under scrutiny yet again and then delivered exactly the kind of composed, central finish that is easy to forget he is capable of, given he actually started his career as a striker. With Atleti’s forward options as thin as they currently are, there might be real value in exploring more of that from him: pace in behind, runs into the channels, a bit more license to hurt teams centrally rather than purely at wingback.
Had Villarreal snatched all three points here, few would have argued they had not earned it, given they had the better of the game’s clear-cut chances throughout. Jan Oblak deserves a great deal of credit for that not happening, coming up with four saves, several of them the difference-making kind, including a close one-on-one stop. His form through these opening two games is a reminder of how important he still is to this side after a difficult year, and Atleti are going to need him at his best if they want to go far across multiple competitions this season.
The Julián situationNow coming to the spicy bit — Julián.
When his name was read out before kickoff, the whistles around the Metropolitano were loud and constant, and they did not stop. It felt like there was a camera trained on him for the entire afternoon, tracking a player who looked sullen and disengaged throughout, jeered as he warmed up and jeered again when he stepped onto the pitch.
If there was ever a moment to silence the crowd, at least momentarily, this was it. Come on, make an impact, and pay respect to a fanbase that has heralded him for two years.
Instead? 12 touches across roughly half an hour on the pitch, a single blocked shot from outside the box, and nine passes, none of which led to anything resembling a chance. The attack looked like it was flowing around him rather than through him. There was no sense he was going to be the one to inspire a way back into this game.
This saga has reached its breaking point. Fans have started chanting for him to leave, and at this stage, it is hard to argue with the sentiment. Whatever quality is still in there, an attitude like this, visible to 60,000 people and a watching audience beyond that, is not sustainable in a dressing room trying to build something this season. It was telling, too, that when the rest of the squad went to applaud the fans at full time, Alvarez went straight down the tunnel alone. Simeone offered an explanation for that afterward, saying the club itself had decided to keep him away from the stands entirely. That context matters, and it complicates the read on the moment somewhat, but it does not change the fact that the reception itself, and everything that led to it, has reached a point that does not feel sustainable for much longer.
And that also feeds into the greater conversation. Without the Argentine, this game exposed a real structural problem for Atleti that was not solved even with the attacker’s presence on the field. The Rojiblancos simply had no presence in the box. Kang-in is going to be central to this team as a creator, not a finisher. Lookman is not a natural focal point either: he is at his best running at defenders, not receiving with his back to goal. Time and again, Atleti worked the ball into good areas with no one there to receive it.
Simeone was candid about exactly this after the game. Taking ownership of the forward situation and apologizing to Lookman for having to play him out of position, Cholo was quick to make the claim that winning titles requires proper forwards. As someone who has had proper forwards that have won titles, you would think he knows what he is talking about.
This attack is not as broken as some might suggest. It is simply missing a focal point. Somebody who can occupy centre-backs, hold the ball up, and let Barrios, Kang-in, Baena, and Lookman play off of him. That unlocks everyone else. Alexander Sørloth, sidelined again, was never going to be that guy on his own even fully fit. He will get you his 15 to 20 goals a season, but he is not the one for the biggest occasions, and his injury record will keep costing Atleti at the worst times.
With the window closing soon, this has to be the priority. Solve the forward problem, whether that means resolving the Alvarez situation one way or another, or bringing in fresh reinforcement up top. It frees Lookman back into his best position, gives the midfield a real target to aim for, and gives this squad, which already looks strong through the spine, a genuine chance at competing on multiple fronts this year.
There is still time, but the days are ticking.
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