Lookman and Sørloth carry ten-man Atlético past Osasuna at El Sadar
Atlético Madrid left El Sadar with three points on Tuesday, holding off a late Osasuna push to win 2-1 after ending the game with ten men. Ademola Lookman opened the scoring from the penalty spot inside the opening quarter of an hour, Alexander Sørloth added the second on 71 minutes, and Kike Barja's stoppage-time strike for Osasuna came too late to change the result.
A handball, a header, and a stoppage-time consolation
Atlético's opener came out of an Antoine Griezmann attempt to chip the ball over Javi Galán in the box. Galán raised his arm to block it, the referee pointed to the spot after a VAR check, and Lookman beat stand-in goalkeeper Aitor Fernández from twelve yards to make it 1-0 in the 15th minute. Sergio Herrera, Osasuna's usual number one, was serving a one-match suspension.
The second arrived through the unlikely route of a deflected Marcos Llorente delivery. The ball skipped through the area, and Sørloth was waiting at the back post to nod home from close range. That goal landed in the 71st minute and looked to have settled the contest.
Osasuna refused to accept it. Kike Barja produced the sort of finish the hosts had been searching for through the second half, latching onto a cutback inside the area and firing into the top corner with the board already showing stoppage time. By then Atlético had a fresh problem on their hands.
Llorente's second yellow forces a backs-to-the-wall finish
Llorente's game ended on the halfway line. A foul on Aimar Oroz brought up a second booking, and the midfielder walked with his side still up by two. Diego Simeone reshaped from the bench quickly, the back line did what Atlético back lines tend to do at El Sadar, and the visitors saw the rest of the game out with ten.
Two wins from their last four league outings means Atlético move on to 66 points from 36 matches and stay in fourth. The same matchday also delivered Real Betis's first Champions League qualification in 21 years, after Pellegrini's side beat ten-man Elche 2-1 at the Benito Villamarín.
Where the result sits in the run-in
For Osasuna, the defeat extends a difficult home run and keeps them outside the European conversation, even with Barja's late goal offering one positive line to take into the closing fixtures. His finish was the clearest break Osasuna found in the second half against an Atlético side that, for long stretches, had looked happy enough to manage the game from the front.
Atlético, for their part, head into the run-in with the back line still conceding too many chances late on, but with the front of the pitch holding up its end well enough to ride those moments out. Sørloth's reading of the back-post run is one of the more reliable patterns Simeone has built around lately, and Lookman's penalty keeps him in the scoresheet at the right end of the season.
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