Friendly: Liverpool – Atletico: 1-2

A big match, strong line-ups and a good win by the rojiblancos!

Sergio Asenjo

Heitinga – Ujfalusi  – Juanito – A. Lopez

Assuncao – R. Garcia

Maxi R.                                                                      Simao

Forlan – Aguero

Looked fairly like a definite line-up to me.

We started out allright, a bit waiting but so was liverpool, meaning there was little action in the beginning. First chance was for Aguero after a nice long ball but it was a handball or offside or something.

It was Aguero though that scored the first goal after 14 minutes. Again Antonio Lopez on the left with a decent cross, a good run from Aguero and he nodded in nicely.

Our Uruguayo was constantly boo’d at by the Liverpool fans (because of his ManU history), but boy, did he shut them up. A pass in from Forlan was taken by Simao, who backheeled to Forlan again who placed the ball inch-perfectly in the top-right corner. A real golazo, what a hero.

Atletico dominated the game and made some nice combinations in midfield and attack without getting really dangerous. The playing made me quite happy though. Liverpool did get chances in the game by the way, mainly via someone we know: Fernando Torres. He got two chances one-on-one with Asenjo, but the first was saved and the second hit the post. Eventually, a minute or 15 before the end, Liverpool pulled one back through Lucas and it seemed that Atleti missed one at the back (Lopez?). After that goal, Liverpool pressed on and Atleti didn’t really got out under the pressure.

Personally, I was quite happy about this Atletico. The backline is still far from secure, but steadily improving. Pulling the offside trap seems to be impossible, though. Cleber Santana played great when he replaced Raul Garcia, improving the general play of the team. Maxi was a bit invisible, Heitinga wasn’t good offensively and the rest was okay. Sergio Asenjo is starting to become a hero already, he is good!!

What’s next?

Champions League-draw: vs. Panathinaikos

Today was the draw of the champions league qualifiers. We drew Panathinaikos.

The first leg will be played 18/19 of August and the second leg will be played 25/26 August.

What to think of the draw? I don’t know..it’s good that we avoided teams as Arsenal, but playing against Panathinaikos will be hell, believe me. It will be quite a double feeling for me, as I’ve grown up with Panathinaikos (Greek father)..

As Fernandez said, don’t underestimate the Greeks, or overestimate Atleti. Both teams have a horrible defence and a lovely attack, a great fanbase and I personally think both teams are equally matched.

Shame we didn’t match up against Sporting, they would’ve been easy..

Friendly
Today Atletico will play versus the Liverpool, a team that I hate sinds the Gerrard/Pernia incident..streams for the match can be found here.

Emirates Cup: Arsenal 2×0 Atletico – PSG 1×1 Atlético

On the first matchday fixture we will play Arsenal at 3.15 pm GMT. On Sunday we will play Paris Saint Germain at 1 pm GMT.

Victories are worth three points, draws are worth one and goals scored also count as one point.

The players who have made the trip to London are the following:

GOALKEEPERS

• Asenjo.
• Roberto.
• De Gea.

DEFENDERS

• Antonio Lَopez.
• Heitinga.
• Ujfalusi.
• Perea.
• Alvaro Dominguez.
• Pablo Ibanez.
• Juanito.
• Valera.
• Leandro Cabrera.

MIDFIELDERS

• Raul Garcia.
• Maxi Rodriguez.
• Paulo Assunçao.
• Simao.
• Cléber Santana.
• Jurado.
• Reyes.
• Koke.
• Keko.

STRIKERS

• Agüero.
• Forlan.
• Sinama-Pongolle.
• Borja.
• Pacheco.

From: ClubAtleticodeMadrid.com

Amsterdam Tournament: Sunderland 2 x 0 Atletico de Madrid

And the first lost has came. I couldn’t watch much of the game but the few I have, I saw a very good defense of…. Sunderland. I couldn’t see any good opportunity for us.

Amsterdam Tournament: Ajax 3 – Atlético 3

The first match for the Rojiblancos on the Amsterdam Tournament was a match that was typical Atléti. Playing effective up front, playing bad at the back…

Atletico didn’t start good. Ajax was in posession and played a lot faster and smarter than we did. Asenjo thankfully was wide awake and stopped an early shot from Cvitanich and was strong in the air. You can see that he is soo incredibly talented, I say we keep him forever.

Amsterdam Tournament: Ajax vs Atletico de Madrid

Today, the tournament begins with us playing against Ajax Amsterdam, and Benfica playing against Sunderland which we will meet in the next round (on Sunday).

The game will kick off at 7.15 pm GMT.

Abel has called some of the youngsters for this tournament, his squad is as follows:

Friendly: Benfica 1 – Atlético 2

Yeah yeah yeah guys, I’m not always available!

I couldn’t see a lot of the match, was at a friend but he was kind enough to put the match on his laptop, so I saw a couple of flashes. Nice applause for Reyes and Simao by the way.

The formation was arguably the strongest/normal formation, at least in the first half.

The attack that ended up with the goal of Raul Garcia was a nice one, the action of Aguero that ended up with the goal of Forlan was nice, but besides that? I don’t really know what happened. Will, Mohammed, please back me up here, haha.