European roundup: Atlético Madrid defeat hits Champions League buildup
Atlético Madrid suffered a shock 1-0 loss at lowly Mallorca to end their six-game winning streak in La Liga as they prepared for their Champions League quarter‑final second leg against Manchester City.
Diego Simeone rested several players before Wednesday’s home leg against City and Atlético struggled to find their rhythm against fourth-bottom Mallorca, who were on a run of seven consecutive league losses. The winner was scored in the 71st minute by the Kosovo striker Vedat Muriqi, who converted a penalty past Jan Oblak after Reinildo Mandava fouled Pablo Maffeo.
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“We need to do more, we need to do better,” Oblak told Movistar Plus. “Yes, we were tired after last Tuesday’s game at Manchester City when we didn’t play a good game, it was a disappointing result, but there is no excuse.
“They are fighting for survival and came to the game with a purpose. We should have expected that and be up to our standards.”
The result left Atlético fourth in the table on 57 points, level with Barcelona, who have two games in hand and visit Levante on Sunday, and three points behind second-placed Sevilla, who beat Granada 4-2 on Friday. Real Madrid, meanwhile, extended their lead at the top to 12 points by defeating Getafe 2-0 thanks to goals from Casemiro and Lucas Vázquez.
In Italy Inter closed the gap on the Serie A leaders, Milan, to one point overnight after cruising to a 2-0 victory over Hellas Verona. Inter built on their crucial 1-0 win over Juventus last weekend with a comfortable victory at the San Siro.
Two goals in the first half put them beyond the visitors, with Nicolò Barella’s fine, half-volleyed finish and a tap-in from Edin Dzeko on the half-hour mark doing the damage. Danilo D’Ambrosio had a great chance to score another late on but fired too close to the Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipò, who tipped the ball on to a post. Inter go above Napoli, who face Fiorentina on Sunday, into second on 66 points from 31 matches. Milan visit Torino.
Inter’s coach, Simone Inzaghi, said: “I know how hard we work, I know how much the boys care … I know the path we are pursuing. There are seven [games] to go, we are all there, we will have to fight in every game because the pitfalls in this Serie A are always around the corner.”
Dusan Vlahovic pounced 15 minutes from time to earn Juventus a 2-1 comeback victory at Cagliari. Juve made a slow start in Sardinia and fell behind when Italy striker Joao Pedro stroked the hosts into a 10th-minute lead. The visitors dominated the remainder of the opening period and got themselves back on level terms on the stroke of half-time when Dutch defender Matthijs de Ligt headed home.
There was only going to be one winner as Juve remained well on top in the second half, with the pressure finally telling as the January signing Vlahovic scored his fifth league goal since arriving in Turin to seal victory for his new side.
Robert Lewandowski scores from the penalty spot to give Bayern Munich victory against Augsburg. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images
Bayern Munich needed an 82nd-minute penalty from Robert Lewandowski to snatch a 1-0 victory over visitors Augsburg and protect their nine-point lead with five matches remaining.
Lewandowski converted the spot-kick awarded for a handball, breaking Augsburg’s valiant resistance, to keep Bayern comfortably clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund, who won 2-0 against VfB Stuttgart on Friday, and on course for a record-extending 10th straight league crown.
Bayern, who suffered their first Champions League loss of the season in midweek after going down 1-0 at Villarreal in their quarter-final first leg, were toothless for much of the game, without a single corner in the first half.
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Lewandowski thought he had finally broken the deadlock with a 47th-minute header but the Augsburg keeper Rafal Gikiewicz somehow got a hand to the ball to push it away.
Bayern finally won the penalty after a VAR review of a Reece Oxford handball and Lewandowski stepped up to send Gikiewicz the wrong way for his 32nd league goal of the campaign.