Atletico Madrid beat All Stars Azerbaijan
Goals from Raul Garcia (2) and Óliver gave Atletico a victory in a friendly marking the 90th anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev with All Stars Azerbaijan.
The red and whites clearly dominated the first half and continually put pressure on the opposition area without really testing Agayev. Right at the start of the game, Tiago almost opened the scoring but caught offside after a great pass from Koke. In the next move, Adrian showed his speed to leave the defender but his header was saved in the bottom left corner. Insua was the next to beat the keeper in the 17th minute but he too was offside.
Atletico continued to push despite the early knockbacks. From the left of Cristian Rodriguez pushed on and found Óliver who beat the goalkeeper recording his first goal for the first team in the 43rd minute.
The second half began with the usual substitutions associated with a friendly, but it didn`t chance the momentum of the game. The red and whites continued to dominate and came close to doubling their lead and would have done so if it wasn`t for Mammadov, the goalkeeper would kept out Raul Garcia after a cross from Insua. The Azerbaijani goalkeeper was becoming the biggest star of his team. In the following attack, Diego Costa was set through by Adrian but the keeper made a double save to keep the score down.
The Brazilian played as sole striker but was well supported by men who came from behind. Among them, the most prominent was Raul Garcia. The Navarre had two chances saved by the goalkeeper before he converted the second of the night. Diego Costa saw Mario Suarez had lost his man and as he found himself alone with the keeper, he waited patiently to play in Raul Garcia to make it 2-0 in the 83rd minute.
That wasn`t the end of the scoring. In the 87th minute when Raul Garcia took advantage of a rebound from the keeper after a shot from Saul make it three and bag his second of the night.