(Football news) Atletico Madrid defeated Girona 2-1 at home. The Rojiblancos really needed that victory in order to get back on track. Diego Simeone made a couple of tactical switches in the line-up. After seeing that Axel Witsel as a centre back was not working, the Belgian was relocated to midfield. With his transfer to Atletico Madrid reportedly being made permanent, Antoine Griezmann started and assisted Angel Correa for the opening goal in the 5th minute. Correa added a 2nd goal in the 48th minute to give Atlético Madrid a comfortable lead. Girona did get a goal back in the 66th minute via Rodrigo Riquelme but the hosts held onto their lead and claimed 3 very important points.
Real Madrid kept their first clean sheet in La Liga this season as they defeated Getafe 1-0 away from home. It was a lacklustre performance by Los Blancos but it did the job. Ancelotti had rested Toni Kroos, Karim Benzema and Ferland Mendy for the match, keeping the El Clasico and the UCL match against Shakhtar in mind. In his 100th Real Madrid match Eder Militao scored from Luka Modric's corner in the 3rd minute. The performance was a bit scrappy but Ancelotti wouldn't mind it as Madrid have struggled in this fixture in recent times.
Real Madrid created a lot of chances but once again couldn't finish them which is becoming a recurring issue.
Barcelona secured a very hard fought 1-0 win over Celta Vigo at the Camp Nou. Amidst all the injury problems, Xavi had to field a back four that had 3 left backs (Jordi Alba, Alex Balde and Marcos Alonso) along with Gerard Pique. Thankfully for the Blaugrana, Pedri scored in the 17th minute after chaos in Celta's defence. The visitors had so many good chances to score the equaliser but they were very unlucky. Marc Andre Ter Stegen made a few very good saves to keep a clean sheet. These are worrying times for Barcelona as they cannot afford to lose their next match against Inter Milan as they will end up in the Europa League once again if they do. After that there is the El Clasico which is always a must win but even more so as both the teams are level on points.
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