Atletico Madrid suffer shock loss to struggling Alaves

Atletico Madrid suffered a shock  lone goal defeat in the hands of struggling Alaves on Saturday adding to the rocky start to the season for the reigning La liga champions.

Victor Laguardia’s header in the fourth minute was enough for an unexpected victory for Alaves, who sat 20th at kick-off, after losing all their first five games and failing to score in any of their previous four.

For Atletico, a first loss of the season laid bare their problems in attack and gave Real Madrid the chance to move five points clear when they play Villarreal later on Saturday.

Diego Simeone’s side have managed only two wins from their last six games in all competitions and this was the third time in four matches that they have failed to score.

The result  presented Real Madrid with a golden opportunity to open up an early advantage before Atletico face Barcelona next weekend.

Before then, Atleti play away at AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday, a game made more important after a goalless draw at home to Porto cranked up the pressure in a group that also includes Liverpool.

Simeone again started with Antoine Griezmann alongside Suarez up front, but the pair mustered only one shot between them, from Suarez, with Griezmann outshone by Angel Correa when the Argentinian was brought on in the second half.

Atletico only managed one shot on target in the whole match as Alaves saw out their first three points of the season with relative ease, despite Jan Oblak going up for the final corner in injury-time.

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The pressure on Griezmann’s place in the starting line-up is increasing. Joao Felix, who was watching from the stands as he served a suspension, will return and Correa looks the most in-form partner for Suarez.

Alaves had been without a goal in almost 400 minutes but scored in the fourth as Laguardia got a run on Stefan Savic at a corner from the right and headed in at the back post.