Atletico Madrid were made to sweat at the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano on Friday night, but they took care of business against an impressive Cadiz side to claim three important LaLiga Santander points with a 2-1 win.
Joao Felix‘s early opener looked to set Los Colchoneros on their way, but they had a lot of defensive work to do to get the points. Alvaro Negredo levelled on the stroke of half time and it took a Rodrigo de Paul strike in the 68th minute to seal the win for Atleti.
Cadiz, meanwhile, impressed in the capital. They had more of the ball than their hosts and had more than twice as many shots on goal as Atleti – 13 to six – though just three of those were on target compared to Los Rojiblancos’ five.
Atleti got themselves in front early on when Joao Felix pounced on a defensive error and made his way into the box. From there, he did well to finish past Jeremias Ledesma at his near post with the angle against him.
Things levelled out from there though and Diego Simeone was given a scare when Reinildo was shown a red card for a two-footed challenge. After a second look on VAR, though, the decision was overturned keeping it 11 against 11.
Cadiz levelled moments later as Negredo found space between Atleti’s defenders to head home a cross.
The hosts needed 22 second-half minutes to get ahead again. This time a ball broke loose and De Paul arrive in time to smash into the top corner.
Atleti did find themselves down to 10 men for the dying moments when substitute Javi Serrano was dismissed in the 88th minute, just five minutes after coming on after sliding in for a challenge with a high foot.
