Atletico Madrid reverted back to their defence-first mentality after just two games in La Liga but managed to get to winning ways with a 1-0 win over Valencia away from home thanks to Antoine Grizmann’s second-half goal.
Diego Simeone’s side came into the contest on the back of a detrimental loss to Villareal and abandoned their attack-minded approach from the opener.
Valencia made full use of Atletico sitting back to dominate the opening stages and thought they had gone ahead when 19-year-old American midfielder Yunus Musah netted a long-range shot in the 24th minute.
But following a lengthy VAR review, the goal was chalked off after Mouctar Diakhaby was deemed to have fouled Joao Felix during the build-up.
VAR would then come to the rescue of Valencia’s Thierry Correia who was shown a red card for a foul on Alvaro Morata but it was changed to a Yellow after another consultation with the pitch side monitor.
With the game between Valencia and Atletico Madrid evenly poised in the second half, Simeone turned to Thomas Lemar and Griezmann as they began to take a foothold in the match.
The two then combined for the only goal of the game as Lemar made a run from the left touchline and found Griezmann on the edge of the area, who lashed in a shot that was deflected off the back of the defender and past the helpless goalkeeper in the 66th minute.
With a goal in their bag, Atletico saw out the game in their typical manner for all three points. They now sit sixth in standings on six points, three behind leaders Real Madrid and Betis and one behind Barcelona.
