Elche 0-1 Atletico Madrid: Simeone’s men claim top-spot, Elche late penalty miss a late penalty

Marcos Llorente-Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid picked up a narrow 1-0 win against Elche to go five points clear at the top of the La Liga table.

Diego Simeone would be a relieved man to see Atletico Madrid get a scrappy 1-0 win against Elche, who missed a penalty in the stoppage time.

It was an eventful first half as Luis Suarez had a goal chalked off for a close offside, but Marcos Llorente provided the breakthrough shortly after.

The second half saw the home side dominate the proceedings and produced a lot of clear cut chances. Llorente almost turned a villain for conceding a penalty in the stoppage time.

Luckily, Elche midfielder Fidel Chaves blew away the chance by finding the post, thus allowing Atletico to scrape three points. It also allowed Los Rojiblancos to go five points clear at the top.

Llorente’s importance to Atletico continues to grow with each passing match and today’s goal marked his 12th league goal of this season, adding to it 10 assists.

Marcos Llorente is involved in 22 league goals (12 Goals and 10 Assists) for Atletico. He is also their second top goalscorer this season.
Atlético de Madrid's Marcos Llorente has had a hand in 15 goals in LaLiga in 2021 (7 goals and 8 assists), only Lionel Messi (27) and Gerard Moreno (16) have been involved in more in this period. Inspired.

However, Simeone’s men struggled a lot to contain Elche’s attack, especially in the second half, meaning that they were far from their best.

Although Atletico have taken what looks like a slim lead at the top of the table, the title race is still wide open with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla chasing.

Perhaps, they will be facing Barca in the away fixture next week and they can’t afford to drop a point if they are to keep a firm hold in the title race.