Atletico Madrid Are in Real Danger of Seeing This La Liga Season Pass Them by

Failing to take your chances is always a recipe for disappointment in football, but when presented with a golden opportunity to haul themselves back into relevance in La Liga this season, Atletico Madrid responded by struggling to get a sight of goal.

On a day when a certain other meeting of Catalonia and Madrid was hogging the headlines, both in the division and across the world, Espanyol’s visit to the Estadio Vicente Calderon was always going to struggle to compete.

It ended goalless, but there were also always going to be storylines.

Before Saturday’s contest was a reminder that football isn’t the most important thing in life, as memories of the ex-Atletico player Cleber Santana were shared in the week that the Chapecoense captain so sadly died along with the vast majority of his team-mates and other passengers in a plane crash.

The Brazilian—an Atletico player between 2007 and 2010, a spell that featured a loan spell away from the club—was part of the squad managed by Quique Sanchez Flores, who suddenly found himself back at a former home on Saturday evening.

Because the clash saw his first return to the Calderon after he left the club in 2011.

The manager who led Atletico to UEFA Europa League glory in 2010—their first European trophy in 48 years—embarked on a kind of world tour thereafter, taking the reins at Al-Ahli in Dubai, Al-Ain in Abu Dhabi, Getafe back in La Liga—but only for about six weeks—and then Watford in the Premier League.

Before leaving in the summer, the Spaniard turned the Hornets into a tough, difficult-to-beat side at times, with their season featuring various peaks and troughs but also never looking like it would end in relegation.

And you can almost transpose that Watford side on to this Espanyol team. Flores’ players were compact and tight at the Calderon, but they were also threatening going forward. Indeed, they had the best and most presentable chances during the first hour of the match, with Atletico’s Jan Oblak twice denying them well.

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