Atlético fall to Vitória, concede stunner in caretaker clash | OneFootball

Atlético and Vitória faced each other on the night of this Sunday (31), at Barradão, for the 22nd round of the Série A of the Brazilian Championship. Both teams entered the field looking for a response for their fans and also pursuing a recovery within the Brasileirão itself. Vitória comes from the biggest defeat suffered by a club in the championship, the 8-0 to Flamengo, while Galo has the worst performance of a Série A club after the Club World Cup.

Another detail of the match was on the teams' benches: both Vitória and Atlético went into the game under the command of interim coaches. After the thrashing, Leão fired Fábio Carille and Rodrigo Chagas was leading the team on the sidelines. On the black-and-white side, Lucas Gonçalves was giving the orders after Cuca's dismissal. It is worth noting that Atlético is close to confirming a new coach, the Argentine Martín Anselmi.

For tonight's match, Lucas opted to repeat the team that took the field in the defeat to Cruzeiro, in the Copa do Brasil, in the middle of the week. Dudu remained a starter, while Rony started on the bench. The left-footed duo in defense with Vitor Hugo and Junior Alonso also drew attention. This was Galo on the field:

First half:

The game started with both teams disputing spaces, but without much technical quality in the construction of plays. Vitória tried to take advantage of the spaces with greater presence in the attack field and that's how they quickly reached their goal: Osvaldo carried through the middle and served Erick at the edge of the area, who with extreme skill, scored a beautiful goal, hitting Everson's corner. Vitória 1-0 Atlético at 5 minutes of the game.

The rain was punishing Barradão and made the game even more scrappy. Atlético tried to find a response, mainly activating the sides of the field, in the duo with Arana and Cuello, maintaining dominant ball possession in the match, but without managing to pose real danger to Lucas Arcanjo's goal.

Vitória, understanding Atlético's limitation in creating plays, opted to keep pressing Atlético on the exit and forcing the Minas Gerais team to make long balls to get out of the defense field. The strategy also served to force errors from Atlético's defenders. And that's how the red-black almost increased the score, with Renato Kayzer taking advantage of errors from the black-and-white defensive duo and finishing with a backheel, but Everson was secure.

Gradually the game was balancing and also becoming more scrappy, with fouls starting to become more frequent as a strategy to stop attacks. Hulk began to be more activated in the attack command and Galo saw their opportunities increase, the first in an infiltration behind the defense where he finished dangerously, but off target. Then in corner kicks, which posed a threat to Vitória's goal.

Surpassing 70% ball possession, Atlético pushed their team mostly to attack and tried to involve Vitória's defense. Hulk almost equalized with a shot from the edge of the area, forcing Lucas Arcanjo to make a great save. Vitória was left with counter-attacks, but with little effectiveness mainly due to the technical difficulty in creating good plays. Despite finishing the game with superiority, Atlético couldn't respond on the field and the game ended with Vitória's partial triumph by 1-0.

Second half:

For the final stage, Atlético returned to the field without changes and the rain returned to fall at Barradão. Galo maintained the rhythm from the end of the first half, with more offensive volume, but with little creativity in the final construction. Vitória continued trying to pull counter-attacks, but also didn't pose much danger.

The best opportunities continued to arise from exit errors. Leão managed to threaten Everson with a defensive error, but Everson continued making good saves. The first changes from interim Lucas Gonçalves happened at 13 minutes: Dudu, in a very lackluster game, gave way to Igor Gomes, in an attempt to gain even more presence in the midfield and Reinier, closer to Hulk, entered in place of defender Vitor Hugo.

Despite the superiority of men in the attack field, the low offensive productivity left Vitória comfortable in the defense field and seeking dangerous counter-attacks. In this game setup, Atlético ended up having two players yellow-carded for fouls to stop the red-black advance almost in sequence: Alexsander and Junior Alonso.

Another change aiming at Galo's offensive strength was the exit of Natanael for the entry of Biel, at 22 minutes of the second half, but the best chances continued to be from medium and long-distance shots. Scarpa posed a threat to Lucas Arcanjo's goal with a shot from outside the area, but the ball went out.

Galo's best chance happened at 34 minutes, in a great infiltration by Cuello in the area, shooting across and hitting the post. Subsequently, the last changes already happened in the final stage of the match. Lucas put forward Rony and midfielder Gabriel Menino, in place of Gustavo Scarpa and Alexsander, respectively.

Galo's pressure continued, Lucas Arcanjo kept working. On the field, the black-and-white team had 4 original attackers, 3 midfielders with offensive characteristics, 1 defensive midfielder, 1 full-back, and 1 defender. Vitória, which had already given up ball possession, held on as best as they could against the black-and-white team's advances, reaching 70% ball possession in the attack field.

With 8 minutes of added time, Vitória kept holding Galo's pressure as best as they could, keeping their 11 players in the defense field. Atlético kept pressing, mainly with lateral infiltrations and crosses into the area, but without efficiency.

In the end, Vitória managed to hold Atlético, with a high number of shots, but few really clear chances. Vitória 1-0 Atlético.

What's next…

Now Atlético tries to take advantage of the break in Brazilian football, due to the FIFA date, to adjust their team, recover players and adapt to the new coach, who should be announced and arrive this week in Belo Horizonte. The next match is against Cruzeiro, in the return game of the Copa do Brasil, valid for the quarter-finals of the competition.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.