La Liga 2025-26: Atletico Madrid breaks Winless Streak with 2-0 win over Villarreal

Atletico Madrid finally got his season on Saturday, with Pablo Barrios and Nico Gonzalez on Doel in a 2-0 home victory on Villarreal who achieved the first victory of the Spanish side of the campaign.

The victory raised Atletico to the ninth in the rankings of La Liga with five points from four games, while Villarreal traded the first defeat per month in the season.

The visitor remains fourth on seven points, five behind leader Real Madrid.

Atletico struck early when Julian Alvarez turned on a defensive Hobler in the ninth minute, on Sergi Cardona’s quirky back-pass to Renato Veiga before he burst into the box and put the ball brilliantly on a plate for Barrios with a backuch pass. The midfielder fired a first-touch attempt along Luiz Junior and at the back of the net.

The host should have double his lead three minutes later when Giuliano Simeone missed a sitter up close. He was unark in the box after a nice pass from Alvarez, but sent his shot to the left of the distant pole.

Although he had more than 70 percent of the possession in the first half, Atletico looked no idea how he could approach Villarreal’s box and create real scoring opportunities.

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The opponent became increasingly threatening, with Alberto Moleiro wasting two big chances by counterattacks and Nicolas Pepe called on the right channel before firing a free kick from the bar just before half -time.

Villarreal came back after the break Livelier and tried to stack the pressure, but it was Atletico who made the most out of a fast counter in the 52nd minute, where Gonzalez burst past the defense to meet the cross of Marcos Llorente from the right with an unstoppable bullet.

Atletico thought it had a third goal when Alexander Sorloth went home from a corner in the 72nd minute, but referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero excluded it for an alleged error, a decision that the home games and fans smoked because the repetition did not show any signs of an infringement in the box.

«It was very important to get points today after the bad run at the start of the season. Today we won in a really convincing way. We were not so bad, nor are we so good now,» Captain Koke told Movistar Plus.

However, the victory ran a prize with Julian Alvarez, David Hancko and Robin Le Normand all forced with injuries only four days before the Champions League debut of Atletico in Anfield against Liverpool.

Published on September 14, 2025