Action between Atletico Madrid and Espanyol during the The Liga de Futbol Professional – Aspire Challenge yesterday.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Spanish football is loved around the world for its drama, goals and passion, and on the first day of ‘The Liga de Futbol Professional – Aspire Challenge’, the young Spanish players demonstrated all of these qualities in spades.
With four matches played in total yesterday, local football fans that attended the games at the Aspire Academy were treated to energetic performances from some of Spain’s best young players.
The tournament began with a dramatic and lively match between Spanish sides Atlético Madrid and Espanyol.
Atlético were the star performers during this opening fixture. Scoring the opening goal of the competition was Atlético striker Juan Aguero who dispossessed the Espanyol defence before firing a confident strike in the game’s 11th minute. 25 minutes later and Aguero had already scored his second of the tournament with a low and hard strike past Espanyol keeper Adrian Lopez. On 41 minutes, a poor defensive mistake from Madrid saw Espanyol pull one goal back. The Espanyol fightback was short-lived however and just four minutes later Atlético defender Aitor Rodriguez ensured victory for his side with a powerful header to make the final result 3-1.
Speaking after the game, Atlético Head Coach Antonio Arganda said, “Before the game there was a lot of pressure on us because this was the tournament’s opening fixture and Espanyol are a very good side.
“But having said this, I thought we played exceptionally well in this game and I think our performance levels today shows that we can keep going further and hopefully win this tournament.”
Next up on Saturday was a closely-fought match between local Qatari players from the Aspire Academy and Spanish side UD Almeria.
The fixture was a tense and defensive affair that did not yield a single goal until late into the second half.
In the 51st minute, Antonio Crespo found Almeria teammate Javier Munoz who scored on the rebound of his own volley.
With the match now into its closing stages, both sides began playing more attacking football and just minutes later the youthful Qataris were able to equalise. Aspire Academy player Rashid Brashdi scored the game’s equaliser in the final minutes.
After such a defensive match, the third game of the day, played between Valencia and Sevilla, was a far free-flowing affair with the former winning 2-1.
