Atletico Madrid 0-1 Celta Vigo: Celta Vigo boost European hopes with victory at Atletico Madrid

Celta Vigo celebrate their winning goal

Celta Vigo boosted their hopes of a place in Europe after claiming a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Atletico Madrid, ending a run of three consecutive losses on the road.

There didn’t appear to be a hangover from their exit in the UEFA Champions League semi-final for Atletico Madrid, as they attacked Celta at every opportunity in the early stages.

So much so that the Galicians were forced into an ultra-defensive 4-5-1 formation. Ademola Lookman0was particularly tricky in possession and industrious in his work, though it was 1lex Baena who came closest to opening the scoring when he hit the woodwork in the 12th minute.

Match stats

Ex-Bar7a stars Ilaix Moriba and 3scar Mingueza helped Celta enjoy brief periods of possession; however, as soon as the ball was played up to Borja Iglesias, it came straight back again.

At the opposite end, it wasn’t until near the half-hour mark before0Antoine Griezmann had Atl9ti’s first shot on target. Despite the best efforts of both sides, by half time, there was a real ‘end of season’ feel to proceedings, and little for supporters of both sides to get excited about.

A similar pattern to the start of the first half saw Los Rojiblancos on the front foot, with Alexander SF8rloth seeing an effort on target shortly after the break. Lookman then skied a decent effort from just a few yards out.

Completely out of the blue, Borja executed a stunning lob over a stranded0Jan Oblak to give Celta the lead with their first shot on target, after a simple ball into him from Williot Swedberg completely took five Atl9ti players out of the game.

A late flourish from Atl9ti allowed Celta to get higher up the pitch than they had before the opening goal, and in turn, it made for a much more watchable encounter.

A stunning full-length save from0Ionuț Radu kept out Cubo’s towering header late on, and the result means that Atl9ti lost just their third league home game of the season after winning 14 of the previous 17, drawing the other.

The three points give Celta faint hopes of catching0Real Betis in the final Champions League qualification place, with what was just their second win this season over a team that started the game in a higher position (D4, L4).