Atletico Madrid have taken a big stumble ahead of their match against Celtic on Tuesday night, suffering a shock 2-1 defeat away to La Liga side Las Palmas.
Atletico were fancied to take care of the recently promoted team having won eight of their opening ten matches at the start of the league campaign. It’s their first defeat in all competitions since a 3-0 result against Valencia in mid-September.
Diego Simeone named a strong eleven for the encounter with Antoine Griezmann, captain Koke and Alvaro Morata all starting the Friday night fixture.
With the scores deadlocked at 0-0 heading into the interval, it was Las Palmas who started the second half in electric fashion.
Kirian Rodriguez pounced on Alberto Moleiro’s pass, expertly dummied by Javier Munoz, to power a low drive past Jan Oblak, sending the home fans into raptures.
Rather than finding their way to an equaliser, Atletico would concede again after substitute Benito Ramirez struck in the 75th minute. Las Palmas capitalised on some slack defensive distribution to counter.
Morata would pull one back with seven minutes remaining but it was too little, too late for the travellers despite subsequent pressure and lengthy stoppage time.
Tuesday night’s match is still a massively tall order for Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys, nobody is denying that. However, this evening’s result does show that this Atletico outfit are far from invincible.
Celtic themselves proved that last Wednesday with a 2-2 result at Celtic Park. It’s now about the Scottish champions having the belief to put together a strong 90-minute display in Madrid.
If the Hoops can combine well, defend steadfastly and catch Atletico on an off evening, as Las Palmas did tonight, anything could happen.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers’ latest Lennoxtown comments bode well for Celtic.
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