Atlético Madrid boosted their qualification hopes from FIFA Club World Cup Group B with a 3-1 victory over Nouhou Tolo’s Seattle Sounders, who are on the brink of elimination after succumbing to three consecutive home defeats for the first time since March 2011.
Following a 4-0 mauling at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético were eager to lay down an early marker, and created a couple of early chances through Alexander Sørloth and Julián Alvarez. It didn’t take too long for the Spaniards to break the deadlock though, as Pablo Barrios rifled home a brilliant first-time strike which clipped in off the underside of the bar.
Sørloth spurned a golden opportunity to double their lead, before Jan Oblak was called into action down the other end to deny Danny Musovski in a lively opening 20 minutes.
Sørloth was enduring a frustrating first half, with the Norwegian thwarted by Sounders shot-stopper Stefan Frei in a one-on-one chance. Brian Schmetzer’s side rallied well, but thought they had conceded a penalty when Reed Baker-Whiting was initially penalised for a challenge on Giuliano Simeone. However, a VAR review controversially determined there was no foul, with a drop-ball given instead. Diego Simeone would have been annoyed that his side weren’t out of sight at HT, and they could have even surrendered their lead had Baker-Whiting been more accurate with his long-range effort.
But Axel Witsel came off the bench ahead of the restart to double Atléti’s lead, nodding home from point-blank range from Robin Le Normand’s cut-back, after Frei could only parry Marcos Llorente’s initial speculative effort into the defender’s path. But just when Simeone’s side looked to be on their way to a comfortable win, Albert Rusnák took advantage of some defensive indecision with a clinical close-range finish to halve the deficit.
The joy was short-lived for the MLS outfit though, with a goal which hardly covered the Sounders defence in glory. A long throw-in found its way to Barrios to apply the simplest of finishes past Frei after allowing the ball to bounce inside the box. Jesús Ferreira thought he had set up a potentially dramatic end to the match when he slotted home late on, but was denied by the linesman’s flag.
This was a harsh lesson for the plucky Americans, who showed plenty of endeavour without the genuine quality to significantly trouble one of Europe’s heavyweights. The Rave Green have now conceded at least two goals in each of their last four matches, before their final group game against PSG on Monday. Meanwhile, Atlético face a crucial clash with Botafogo the same day in their quest to reach the knockout stages.
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