[Epoch Times, January 24, 2022](Comprehensive report by The Epoch Times reporter Li Rongshi) On January 22-23 local time, in the 22nd round of the 2021-2022 La Liga season, the “leader” Real Madrid played a 2:2 match at home. Elche fought to a tie; Sevilla, who was in second place, also drew, and Real Madrid continued to lead with a 4-point advantage. The defending champion Atlético de Madrid was at home and scored two consecutive goals in stoppage time, reversing Valencia 3:2, accumulating 36 points and occupying the initiative of the “fourth place”. Barcelona beat Alaves by a goal away, ranking fifth.
Real Madrid was tied and continued to lead by 4 points
Since entering 2022, Real Madrid has continued to maintain a good state, maintaining a complete victory in the last five games. In the Spanish Super Cup, Real Madrid first eliminated Barcelona to enter the final, and then defeated Athletic Bilbao to win the championship; in the King’s Cup, the “Galaxy Battleship” also successfully advanced to the quarter-finals.
In this round of La Liga, Real Madrid will play against the “downstream” team Elche at home. They are the opponents Real Madrid reversed and eliminated in the 1/8 knockout of the King’s Cup. In addition, in this game, the absolute main players such as Benzema and Courtois returned together, and Real Madrid’s book strength is obviously superior.
In the first half, Real Madrid won a penalty kick, but Benzema’s penalty kick hit the crossbar and popped. This is also the first time Benzema missed a penalty for Real Madrid, after all 16 hits. Before halftime, Elche counterattacked, Bowyer grabbed a point in front of the goal, and the header succeeded, helping the visiting team to break the deadlock on the field 1:0.
Easy to fight again. In the 76th minute, Milia volleyed, and then the next win, Elche took a 2:0 lead. In the 81st minute, Milia fouled with a handball in the penalty area. The referee took a penalty kick. Modric made a penalty and scored a point for Real Madrid. In the 92nd minute, Vinicius made a pass from the left side of the penalty area, and Militao scored a header from the middle. In the end, the two sides shook hands 2:2.
After 22 rounds, Real Madrid topped the list with 50 points. Although Real Madrid did not win against the underdogs, its title rival Sevilla was also tied 2:2 by Vigo Celta at home. The difference between the two teams did not narrow and still maintained a 4-point gap. Real Betis beat Espanyol 4:1 in this round, ranking third with 40 points.
Atletico Madrid staged a big comeback with two consecutive goals in stoppage time
Atlético de Madrid has been in poor form recently. It stopped in the semi-finals of the Western Super Cup and the top 16 in the Copa del Rey. It lost two consecutive opportunities to compete for the championship in 8 days. As the La Liga champion last season, Atletico Madrid ranked fourth with 33 points after 20 rounds of games, 13 points behind the “leader” Real Madrid with one game less, and there is basically no hope for the championship.
In this round, Atlético Madrid will host Valencia at home. In the 25th minute, 19-year-old Yunus Musa opened the scoring for Valencia. He also became the first American in La Liga history to break the goal of Atletico Madrid. In the 44th minute, Douro succeeded with a shovel shot to expand the score for the visiting team. At the end of the first half, Atletico Madrid trailed 0:2. It is worth mentioning that, including these two conceded goals, Atletico Madrid have conceded 26 goals in 21 rounds of La Liga this season, more than their total conceded goals in the 38 rounds of the league last season.
In the 64th minute, Carrasco passed a corner kick to the goal, and Cunha pushed the goal and scored a goal for Atletico Madrid. After that, the game was deadlocked. After 90 minutes, the score was still 1:2 behind Atletico Madrid. In the first minute of stoppage time, Carrasco crossed the penalty area diagonally, the ball was blocked by the opponent’s goalkeeper Domenech, and Correa scored a supplementary shot to equalize the score 2:2 for Atletico Madrid.
Only 1 minute later, Cunha drove the ball into the penalty area and knocked on the middle. Hermoso shot an empty goal from close range in front of the goal, helping Atletico complete a 3:2 lore and winning the first victory in the past four games. And for 11 consecutive years at home to remain unbeaten against Valencia.
The data shows that after this reversal, Atletico became the second La Liga team in this century to fall behind within 90 minutes and score two consecutive goals in stoppage time to complete the reversal. Last time, it was Real Betis who completed the big reversal, and their opponent at the time was also Valencia by coincidence.
After the lore win, Atletico Madrid’s points reached 36 points, and it temporarily ranked fourth in one less game. Relying on Frenkie de Jong’s 87th-minute lore goal, after a 1-0 away victory over the second-to-last Alaves, Barcelona ranked fifth with 35 points, one game away from the top four. Just one point. Real Sociedad drew 0-0 with Getafe at home, and ranked sixth with 34 points in one less game. Villarreal are in seventh place with 32 points after beating Mallorca 3-0 at home.
Responsible editor: Zheng Huang