Soccer Football - LaLiga - Athletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid - San Mames, Bilbao, Spain - August 31, 2024 Atletico Madrid players celebrate after Angel Correa celebrates scores their first goal REUTERS/Vincent West
(Reuters) -Angel Correa's strike from a counter-attack in stoppage time gave Atletico Madrid a hard-fought 1-0 LaLiga victory at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.
In an entertaining game in which both teams struggled to find a clinical edge despite plenty of attacking quality on show, the visitors finally broke the deadlock two minutes into added time.
Atletico forward Alexander Sorloth stole the ball from defender Inigo Lekue on the halfway line and set up substitute Correa who, four minutes after coming off the bench, took it past the goalkeeper before tapping into the empty net.
Sorloth missed an absolute sitter two minutes later, but his mistake ended up not costing Atletico their second win of the season.
They climbed to second in the standings on eight points, four behind leaders Barcelona. Last season's Copa del Rey champions Athletic Bilbao are 10th on four points.
Diego Simeone's Atletico travelled to Bilbao under duress after a dour scoreless home draw with promoted Espanyol on Wednesday and were forced to make a late change with goalkeeper Jan Oblak ruled out due to illness.
Facing the team who knocked them out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-final stage last season, Atletico were solid in defence.
Clearcut chances were rare for either side, although the hosts controlled possession and forced replacement goalkeeper Juan Musso to make a brilliant save from a Oihan Sancet strike, their only shot on target in the match.
Atletico were dangerous on the counter-attack with new signings Julian Alvarez and Conor Gallagher both creating good chances but they could not find a way through until Correa's late strike.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, editing by Ed Osmond)
