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At 4:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 12, the 28th round of La Liga ushered in a match, and Atletico Madrid faced Cadiz at home. Atletico have had a poor record this season, being left far behind by Real Madrid in the league, and the hope of a title race is extremely slim. However, Atletico's recent form has picked up, having won three consecutive league games before that, and the team's attack and defense have improved compared to before. This time, Atletico are playing against 18th-placed relegation team Cádiz. Facing opponents of this level at home, Atletico's minimum goal is to take all three points and win a thrilling victory.
Simeone discharged in a 532 formation. Oblak served as the starting goalkeeper. Marcos Llorente, Savage, Jimenez, Rainerdo and Carrasco form a five-back. Cork, Héctor Herrera and De Paul played in 3 midfielders. Griezmann and Felix's two strikers joined forces. Suarez, Angel Correa, Rennan Lodi and Felipe are all on the bench. Cadiz was in a 442 formation, with Negredo and Antoni Lozano starting out.
Atletico got off to a fantastic start to the match, scoring in just over two minutes before Felix grabbed a low-level pass error from the goalkeeper and calmly pushed the goal. It's hard to find a better start than that. However, After scoring, Atletico were somewhat unmotivated, playing extremely conservatively, lacking aggression on the offensive end and unable to continuously pressure Cadiz. Opportunities for Cadiz began to emerge, with Espino, Negredo and Sobrino all taking their shots deflected. Rainierdo was shown a red card for a foul, but the referee watched the replay instead awarding a yellow card. Although avoiding a one-man battle, Atletico conceded the ball afterwards, with Negredo's header breaking through the goal guarded by Oblak. At the end of the half, the two sides drew 1-1. Atletico had 43% possession in the first half, only 2 shots on goal and 1 goal. Cadiz, on the other hand, scored six shots on goal in the first half.
The second half was easy to fight again. In order to let the team score, Simeone constantly made substitutions, first with Rennan Lodi, then with Suarez and Correa. The result is that the substitution has an effect. It was Correa's shot that was saved that allowed DePaul to score in. Atletico then almost conceded the ball again, but fortunately Jimenez's header on the goal line was cleared, saving the team and filling the hole that Oblak had dug. Serrano was sent off for a red card for a foul in the final stages. After that, the Cadiz coaching staff was dissatisfied with the referee and was sent off by the referee one after another. The final score was set at 2-1, and Atletico won without any chance.
In this game, Atletico only had 6 shots on goal, 8 fewer than Cadiz, but won, which is the typical Simeone way of winning, just playing such offensive data at home, there is still a lot of room for improvement. In the post-match whoscored rating, De Paul scored a game-high 8.2 points, scoring 1 goal, 3 key passes, 5 steals, and impeccable performance on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. Atletico's 120 million euros to bring in Felix also did well, scoring 1 goal and scoring 7.3 points. Felix has been in pretty good form lately, scoring 3 goals in 2 games. Griezmann's performance was disastrous, with 0 shots on goal, 0 passes and 0 key passes, scoring only 6.5 points.