The brace of Pablo Barrios brought Atletico Madrid to a 3-1 win over the Seattle Sounders on Thursday and received the Spanish Side’s Club World Cup campaign again.
Axel Witsel also scored when Atletico recovered to victory in the home field of Seattle after it had started in group B with a loss of 0 -4 for Paris Saint -Germain in South California on Sunday.
Albert Rusnak scored after the break for Seattle, which has lost twice in the event for the supporters of home.
Atletico Madrid is in second place in group B with Paris Saint-Germain after the latter later fell with Botafogo. In the meantime, the Sounders still have a slim chance to continue to the knock phase.
Barrios, 22, scored early in every half for the first bracket of his senior club career.
Atletico put his first goal in the front in the front 11th minute to close a furious start for the Spanish club.
Giuliano Simeone did a lot of work, ran on a beam ball to the right edge of the penalty area, cuts back to avoid a defender and then drag a low cross to the penalty bow. Barrios met it in pass and hit a first, right foot shot that rattled the bottom of the bar on the way inside.
Barrios’ second in the 55th minute was simpler because he was allowed time and space to hit half a volley past goalkeeper Stefan Frei after the failure of Seattle to erase Marcos Llorente’s long pitch from the right.
Before the break, Atletico had a clear opportunity to double the lead from the penalty spot that had been removed after referee Yael Falcon Perez had reversed his first decision after a video review.
The parties then exchanged goals in the first five minutes of the second half.
In the 47th minute, Witsel went home from the six-year box in the resulting clambering after Frei pushed the first half volley of Llorente on the bar. In the 50th minute, Rusnak scored from a similar reach on a bent shot after the failure of Atletico to treat the first ball of Seattle in the box.
