Atletico had 62 per cent of the ball at San Mames, and lost 3-0
Atletico Madrid’s first defeat of the season drops them to seventh, and the summer signing they expected to hand a debut to woke up on the morning of the match with a neck problem.
Sep 6, 2026
Atletico Madrid had not lost a match this season until Saturday evening at San Mames. Then they conceded twice inside three minutes of the restart and never got near Athletic Club again.
The 3-0 scoreline flattered nobody. Nico Williams scored a minute into the second half, Robert Navarro added a second in the 48th, and Oihan Sancet finished it in the 90th. Between those two early goals Atletico had no answer at all, and Diego Simeone’s side lost for the first time this season.
Three minutes that settled it
What makes the result awkward for Atletico is that they were not outplayed in the way the score suggests. They had 62 per cent of the ball. They had more shots on target than Athletic, five to four. The expected goals figures were close, 1.35 to Athletic and 0.86 to Atletico, which is the sort of gap that usually produces a one-goal game.
Athletic simply took their moments and Atletico did not. Unai Simon made five saves in the Athletic goal. Jan Oblak made one. That is the whole match in two numbers.
Nico Williams’ goal was his first of the season and his first in the league since May, which had become a talking point in Bilbao. Sancet’s third was also his first of the campaign. For a side that lost their opening two league games, Athletic have now won two in a row and look considerably more like themselves.
Atletico’s shape of season
Four matches in, Atletico sit seventh on seven points, with seven scored and six conceded. That is not a crisis by any reading of a table this early, and the reaction from Atletico supporters online said more about the volume of their summer than about four games of football.
It has been a long summer at the Metropolitano. The Julian Alvarez saga ran for most of it. Jonathan David arrived on loan from Juventus in the closing days of the window and was expected to be involved in Bilbao, then woke up on the morning of the match with a neck problem and did not travel into the squad. Simeone is still assembling a forward line he has not yet been able to pick.
Above them, Barcelona lead with nine points from three matches, Real Madrid have nine from four, and Betis are third on the same points as Madrid. Athletic, on six from four, are still a point behind Atletico despite Saturday’s result, which is a reasonable summary of how little the table means in early September.
What it actually tells us
Not a great deal about Athletic, who beat the teams they beat at San Mames and have done so for years. More about Atletico, who spent the summer rebuilding an attack and have now played four league games without looking like they know what the finished version is. The 62 per cent possession is the tell. It is a lot of the ball for a Simeone team, and very little done with it.
Atletico are away to Real Sociedad next Sunday. Athletic host Elche the same day. Simeone has a week to find a forward line, and Jonathan David’s neck to worry about.