Atlético de Madrid’s memorable 2025/26 season is heading toward a depressing end following the Rojiblancos’ 1-0 home loss to Celta Vigo on Saturday.
Celta secured its first league win away to Atlético since June 2007 when Borja Iglesias chipped Jan Oblak after 61 minutes at a dour and rainy Riyadh Air Metropolitano. Iglesias’ goal had followed an hour when Atlético enjoyed near-total domination over the visitors, but Diego Simeone’s men — often so prolific this season — could not beat Ionuț Radu in the Celta goal.
Atlético’s hopes of finishing third in LaLiga hang by a thread following the side’s 10th defeat of the league season. Villarreal drew 1-1 at Mallorca on Sunday and have a six-point advantage over Atleti with three rounds to go; Atleti visit Villarreal in the season finale on May 24.
Let’s get into the takeaways from Saturday’s loss, Atleti’s third home defeat in the league this term.
The lack of defensive talent
The sequence that ended in Celta Vigo’s goal pointed once more to a years-long issue at Atlético de Madrid that must be addressed (once again) this summer if Diego Simeone’s side is to make a renewed push for domestic and continental silverware in 2027: a stunning paucity of pure defensive skill.
The goal starts after Atlético actually recover the football. Nahuel Molina, just introduced as a substitute, put Koke and Marcos Llorente under a heap of pressure with an ill-advised trivela pass (lmao) into the center circle. Koke is able to settle it down, but he mishits a pass directly to Ilaix Moriba to start a Celta counter. Pablo Durán receives the ball and cuts inside on Koke to create a small pocket of space where he finds Williot Swedberg. Molina jogs back into position while Marc Pubill and Robin Le Normand both mistime their slide tackles, and Dávid Hancko’s desperate slide over to Iglesias comes too late — the Spain striker calmly chips it over a motionless Oblak.
Le Normand did not start the match and only entered after Josema Giménez, making his first start for nearly two months, twisted his ankle while trying to win the ball from Iglesias midway through the first half. Giménez probably was making his final home start as an Atleti player, and it is sadly appropriate that his day ended due to an injury that forced a defender with half his talent to enter the fray.
Including last summer’s three-game stay at the FIFA Club World Cup, Atlético have conceded an eye-watering 80 goals from 61 games in the past 11 months. That is the fifth-highest register in a single season across the club’s 123-year history. Despite leading in 29 of 35 rounds, Atleti have contrived to drop 25 points from winning positions, a statistic which speaks to a lack of focus, intensity or talent to resolve opponent attacks.
(And some still demand that this team win the Champions League, where Atleti shipped 28 goals from 16 matches.)
There will be a great opportunity to right this wrong in the summer. Giménez is likely to come off the books and Molina should be sold with a year left on his contract; I expect the club will try to convince Clément Lenglet to leave too, though it won’t be easy with two years to go on his deal — shoutout to Miguel Ángel Gil!
In Hancko and Pubill, Atlético have a pairing to build upon. But the depth behind them is laughable. Amid rumored interest in Elche’s David Affengruber and Villarreal’s Pau Navarro, Simeone and sporting director Mateu Alemany are well aware that a refresh is needed.
Baena finds something
Álex Baena was the summer signing who arrived at Atleti with the most fanfare affixed to his name. While his debut season in the Spanish capital has been anything but brilliant, Baena’s performance against Celta on Saturday offers plenty of encouragement that he will level up in 2026/27.
Baena produced one of his best performances against Celta, and it felt harsh when Cholo Simeone removed him after 68 minutes. Despite 13 possession losses, he offered wild passing value, with 1.43 expected assists amid big chances created for Ademola Lookman (off the woodwork) and Alexander Sørloth (saved by Radu).
Often situated centrally and taking most of his touches roughly 25 yards from goal, Baena confidently flung passes and carried the ball looking for opportunities to inflict the most damage. This is exactly what I want to see from him, and it worked because there was at least one ball-winner — Marcos Llorente — hanging out behind him.
Atleti’s interest in João Gomes makes sense as a mechanism to get the most out of Baena, who thrived at Villarreal when a couple pivots who could retain and circulate the ball were stationed behind him. Next season, as he tries to step into the void that Antoine Griezmann will leave, Baena may well rediscover his mojo if a ball-winner like Gomes arrives and Johnny Cardoso stays healthy.
Miguel Cubo outshines Alex Sørloth
It is sometimes said that a forward who is able to get consistently into goal-scoring positions — even without scoring — offers inherent value to his team for being able to work his way into those positions in the first place. Sørloth, and Álvaro Morata before him, challenge this theory on which data models are built due to the immense frustration they provoke in fans.
Sørloth was given 90 minutes after an ineffectual substitute appearance at Arsenal in midweek, and two weekends after he bagged a brace in a win over Athletic Club. He produced 0.6 expected goals and missed two big chances while showing little application when the ball wasn’t being forced in his direction. Inexplicably, Sørloth won zero duels and again looked like he couldn’t care less whether he scored or not.
Meanwhile, Atlético Madrileño forward Miguel Llorente “Cubo” continued his meteoric rise into the first-team dynamic with an energetic cameo. In his 21 minutes not including stoppage time, Cubo produced two shots, won two fouls and claimed four of his six individual duels.
A minute after coming on, the 18-year-old baited Swedberg into a foul and a dangerous free kick; a few minutes later, he flashed just wide of Radu’s goal with a venomous left-footed shot that skipped through the six-yard box.
Cubo, who has scored five goals in 32 appearances at Madrileño in the third tier, showed a hunger and a combativeness that contrasted from his nominal strike partner Sørloth. It shows how Alemany should build for next season: the average age of the squad should continue to go down, and the team’s physical level must continue to rise.