February 12, (THEWILL) – Mario Hermoso was Atletico Madrid’s saviour on Saturday, scoring a stunning late winner in a wild 4-3 derby triumph against Getafe, despite the hosts finishing the game with 10 men.
Atletico had looked particularly sharp early on and had a chance to take the lead in the ninth minute, but David Soria saved Luis Suarez’s penalty that was awarded after the forward was fouled in the opponent’s area.
Angel Correa arrived late to prod in a poke that beat Soria in the Getafe goal after Djene Dakonam flicked the ball on while being shoved by Mateus Cunha. Then, Atletico went into cruise control when Cunha scored a tap-in of his own with 27 minutes left, but Getafe fought back heroically.
Borja Mayoral deflected Jakub Jankto’s ball into the net to begin the Getafe comeback. Unal stepped up to convert two penalties after Cunha and Thomas Lemar were both penalised for handball inside the box by referee Ricardo De Burgos. The lead had swung in favour of the visitors.
However, Atletico were level at the break thanks to Correa, who nodded in Lemar’s enticing cross at the back post.
Atletico’s comeback suffered a setback when Felipe was dismissed just shy of the hour mark. The defender had been beaten to the ball by Mauro Arambarri after Stefan Savic’s hard touch and he unfortunately caught his opponent with a high boot.
Despite the odds, Atletico managed to pull off a late victory. Rodrigo De Paul’s deep free-kick was headed back across goal by Joao Felix, and Hermoso acrobatically scored at the second attempt to wild celebrations inside the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
