MADRID: Atletico Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Espanyol in La Liga at the Metropolitano on Wednesday after the home side failed to convert their chances in a largely one-sided contest.

Espanyol are the only team yet to score in La Liga and they showed no signs of breaking the duck when they came under siege from an Atletico side that dominated pro­c­eedings as soon as the referee blew the whistle.

But Espanyol’s rearguard held firm, making 43 clearances, while goalkeeper Joan Garcia made seven saves to deny Diego Simeone’s side the win and take home a precious point from a ground where Atletico rarely dropped points last season.

“This is a difficult place to come, to get a point at the Metropolitano is huge. We go home happy,” Espanyol’s Javi Puado said. “We spoke at halftime as we suffered in the first half. They were finding it easy to put in lots of crosses. But we corrected that in the second half. This is a valuable point.”

Espanyol were on the back foot right from the start, with Julian Alvarez forcing Joan Garcia into a diving save five minutes in while Samuel Lino finished off a flowing team move only for his effort to come off the post.

Atletico’s Alexander Sorloth, who scored 23 goals for Villarreal last season, nearly opened the scoring when Rodrigo Riquelme cut back the ball but the Norwegian forward dragged his attempt wide of the far post.

Atletico thought they had scored 10 minutes into the second half when Riquelme nudged in the ball near the goal line after a melee in the box but after a lengthy VAR check, the goal was chalked off for offside.

He had the ball in the back of the net once again in second-half added time but yet again his celebrations were cut short when the linesman’s flag went up for offside.

“It was a shame. The first [offside] was because the keeper was so far out of his goal, the second I was definitely in an offside position,” he said. “We did everything right until the end but sometimes the ball won’t go in, that’s what happened tonight.”

Puado nearly snatched all three points for Espanyol in added time but he missed his attempt.

The result leaves Espanyol in 18th with their first point while Atletico are fourth with five points.Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2024