Atlético de Madrid won its sixth match in a row on Saturday after Álex Baena’s 89th-minute strike delivered a 1-0 victory at Espanyol.
Baena, part of a string of second-half substitutes, bent in the winning goal from Julián Alvarez’s assist as Atlético held on to second place in LaLiga after nine rounds. Baena’s goal, his fifth of the season, helped Atleti to a win at Espanyol’s RCDE Stadium for the first time since September 2021, when Thomas Lemar scored an even-later goal for a 2-1 victory.
Let’s
break down the goal that saw Atleti secure a rare win at Espanyol and improve to 7-1-1 in LaLiga.
The sequence that ends in Baena’s goal actually starts almost a full minute before he scores — and it was nearly a disaster for Atleti.
Espanyol goalkeeper Ángel Fortuño goes long with a clearance as Giuliano Simeone presses him, and the hosts settle into an unexpected possession spell after Dávid Hancko mistimes his jump in a bid to win the ball. Álex Calatrava sends a cross into the penalty area that Hancko clears, and Morten Hjulmand lays it off to Marcos Llorente in a bid to start a counterattack.
Llorente and Rodrigo Mendoza form a triangle with Hjulmand, while Jonathan David drops deep to receive and continue the move. Mendoza receives again and does something that will have driven Diego Simeone absolutely crazy: under pressure from Pol Lozano, the 21-year-old passes all the way back to Marc Pubill instead of the more sensible (and closer) option in Llorente. That puts Pubill under significant pressure from Javi Puado, but he’s able to get the ball to Llorente anyway.
Tired of what has unfolded at the back, Llorente looks up and whips a pass toward Baena, who has a pocket of space until Omar El Hilali rushes in to close it off. Baena chests down the pass and quickly plays it to Hancko as Espanyol retreat.
Baena takes off through the center of the park as Hancko slides a pass to Álex Grimaldo, who carries into the final third before he lays off to Alvarez. La Araña maintains the width to allow Grimaldo the license to operate centrally, and the Espanyol defense clearly fears what the striker can produce even from this position. Matched up against center-back Clemens Riedel, Alvarez turns and cuts inside; Riedel grabs at him and convinces referee Hernández Hernández to play advantage, but Alvarez stays on his feet and continues to carry the ball.
Baena calls for it at the edge of the penalty area and Alvarez duly finds him. This prompts a collective “oh, shit” moment from the entire Espanyol defense:
Because at that point, all that’s left to do is take a clean touch and bend the ball past Fortuño, which Baena does brilliantly.
Marca’s Isaac Suarez on Saturday wrote Baena is “right on time” as football’s elite prepare to gather in London for the Ballon d’Or gala next week. Of course, Baena won’t win it, but don’t laugh off his case: he’s a regular starter for world champion Spain who has started this season with 12 goal contributions (6 scored, 6 assisted) in 15 games for club and country.
At any rate, I prefer what Patricia Cazón has written about him in AS.
“The curse of Cornellà hung over Atleti’s sixth straight victory like a guillotine until Baena appeared—just as Griezmann had on so many afternoons and in so many games,” Cazón wrote. “Ever since Baena stepped onto the field, he’d been trying to find a way to get the ball past the wall of defenders Manolo had set up. Something that, until then, Atleti hadn’t managed to do. Until, on that play, the ball reached him.”
Baena is becoming the player Atleti had envisioned when the club decided to sign him in 2025. He is becoming a (the?) new Antoine Griezmann, an attacker who influences all phases of play, from buildup in his own half to decisive moments at the other end: he has directly contributed to the winning goal in three consecutive games. An unexpected debut season serving as Griezmann’s understudy might have done him a world of good.
“Baena sees the game differently than others, he’s stronger and more confident since the World Cup,” Cholo Simeone said Saturday afternoon. “He’s the player we went out to sign. We’ll have to manage his playing time so that his unique qualities can shine through.”
Baena probably starts again in Stuttgart on Tuesday, when the Colchoneros can win a seventh successive game and take a big step toward the UEFA Champions League’s knockout phase. If Atleti win in Germany, you can imagine Baena will have had something to do with it.
