La Liga: Atletico Madrid held to goalless home draw by Espanyol

MADRID: Atletico Madrid was held to a 0-0 draw at home by Espanyol in the La Liga at the Metropolitano on Wednesday after the home side failed to convert its chances in a largely one-sided contest. Espanyol is the only team yet to score in La Liga and it showed no signs of breaking the duck when it came under siege from an Atletico side that dominated proceedings as soon as the referee blew the whistle for kickoff.

But Espanyol’s rearguard held firm, making 43 clearances, while goalkeeper Joan Garcia made seven saves to deny Diego Simeone’s side the win and take home a precious point from a ground where Atletico rarely dropped points last season.

“This is a difficult place to come, to get a point at the Metropolitano is huge. We go home happy,” Espanyol’s Javi Puado said.

“We spoke at halftime after we suffered in the first half. They were finding it easy to put in lots of crosses. But we corrected that in the second half, so this is a valuable point for us.”

Espanyol was on the back foot right from the start, with Julian Alvarez forcing Joan Garcia into a diving save five minutes in while Samuel Lino finished off a flowing team move only for his effort to come off the post.

Atletico’s Alexander Sorloth, who scored 23 goals for Villarreal last season, nearly opened the scoring when Rodrigo Riquelme cut back the ball but the Norwegian forward dragged his attempt wide of the far post. Agencies

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