Atlético Madrid 2-0 Girona match report: Godín and Griezmann on target

It was a case of sixth time lucky for Atlético Madrid against Girona at the Wanda Metropolitano on Tuesday night with second half Diego Godín and Antoine Griezmann goals separating the sides for the first time ever after 90 minutes.

In the five games prior to this fairly meaningless LaLiga tie, we saw three 1-1 draws, a 2-2 and one 3-3 but Atlético’s disappointing record improved on Tuesday as they also moved six points clear of Real Madrid with their city rivals playing on Wednesday night. And Griezmann broke his duck of seven games without a goal since the Juventus first leg tie.

Simeone started the game with Koke, Saul, Thomas and Rodri in the middle with Morata up front along with Griezmann and they were the better side in the first half even though they struggled to break down Girona’s defence. The best effort of the opening 45 came when Koke hit the crossbar from distance as he did his best impression of Thomas Partey.

Atlético picked it up after the break but it was much of the same. Morata broke free a couple of times but was too far to the left to strike. There was a distinct lack of support in the box too as Atlético’s inability to match Simeone’s verve on the sideline was evident from the start.

A corner was whipped in the 76th minute with the game careening towards another draw albeit of the scoreless variety. Diego Godín headed home after Griezmann headed up into the air. The decision was left to VAR and they decided in favour of the French attacker.

Griezmann had a chance to finish the game in the 87th minute but struck straight at Gorka in Girona’s goal, which looked ready to sum up the night for the rojiblancos.

He made it right on 93 minutes when Vitolo played him through and instead of trying to go through Gorka, he went over him. His celebration said it all though as Simeone celebrated on the sideline but Griezmann moped back to the halfway line.

Atlético have a long and lonesome road towards the end of the season filled with games that mean little but at least they’re winning. That’s something, right?