Atletico dig deep to draw at Girona
GIRONA: Atletico Madrid demonstrated their remarkable team spirit to come roaring back from two goals and a man down to draw 2-2 at Li ga debut ants Giro na on Saturday, after Antoine Griezmann had been sent off for the first time in his career.
Girona looked set to enjoy a dream top flight bow when Uruguay international Cr is th ian Stuani rose to he adina sweeping cross from Alex Gran ell midway through the first half and three minutes later showed his predator’s instinct to nod in a loose ball from close range.
Argentine forward Angel Correa pulled one back for Atletico with a long range strike in the 78th minute, after Griezmann had been dismissed for two successive bookings, one for diving to try and win a penalty and another for dissent.
Defender Jose Gimenez then beat Girona goalie Gorka Iraizoz to head Atletico level in the 85th minute and cap a thrilling encounter at the Montilivi stadium. “Girona are a solid team that know show they want to play and they proved that in the first half, but I’m delighted with the good things we did ,” At le ti co boss Diego Simeone told reporters.
Girona boss Pablo Machin said: “Just when it looked like we’d done everything to win, Atletico did what champions do and as well as their quality they had that slice of luck, which we didn’t.”
NAPOLI EDGE PAST VERONA 3-1
MILAN: Napoli enjoyed a positive start with a comfortable 3-1 win at promoted Verona, where Arkadiusz Milik repaid Maurizio Sarri for a first start of the season with Napoli’s second.
It took a messy corner to give Napoli the lead when it came off the foot of Samuel Souprayen in the first half. Milik then made it 2-0 in the 39 th minute before Algeria defender Faouzi Ghoulam then put the match beyond reach on 62 minutes.
Napoli were reduced to ten men for the final minutes when Elseid Heysaj was shown a second yellow card for hauling down Daniel Bessa as he bore down on ‘keeper Pepe Reina. Giampaolo Pazzini stepped up to beat Reina down low with the penalty.
DORTMUND OUT CLASS WOLFSBURG3-0
BERLIN: Christian Pulisic scored and created a goal as he replaced Barcelona target O us ma ne Dembe let os park Bo russia Dortmund to a 3-0 win over Wolfsburg on Saturday.
The 20-year-old Dembele has attempted to force Dortmund into selling him to the Spanish giants by boycotting training and, having been suspended indefinitely, missed his side’ s opening game of the new German league season.
Dortmund’s director of sport Michael Z or cc on firmed Dem be le will be sold to Barcelona in this transfer window if they meet Bo russia’ s price, reportedly set at 130 million euros ($152m).