🟨 Cardoso (29'), Mendoza (52'), Llorente (70')
Match Overview
Just two days after demolishing Barcelona 4–0 in the Copa del Rey, Simeone rotated nine players to face Rayo Vallecano — sitting 18th in the table at kick-off — and his side were thrashed. For Rayo it was their first win over Atlético in 13 years and only their second in 27 years.
The venue was not Rayo's home, Vallecas, but Butarque in Leganés — La Liga had declared the Vallecas pitch unplayable. Attendance: 5,335. Rayo's ultras, Los Bucaneros, had called a boycott over owner Raúl Martín Presa, and the terraces showed it. On the pitch, however, Rayo were dominant.
Atlético held 59% possession to Rayo's 41%. Yet the expected goals read Rayo 1.61 to Atlético 0.70. Shots 13–9, big chances 6–1. The numbers told the story plainly: Atlético had the ball; Rayo controlled the game.
In their last three La Liga fixtures Atlético gathered just one point (0–1 vs Betis, 0–0 vs Levante, 0–3 vs Rayo). The gap to league leaders Real Madrid stretched to 15 points; Villarreal overtook them and they slipped to fourth.
Rayo's Claws — 90 Minutes of Relentless Pressing and Dribbling Menace
Rayo's display was nothing like that of a side fighting relegation. Their press lasted 90 unbroken minutes, and in both phases they showed a high level of organisation.
The most dangerous threat came from dribblers cutting into the vital areas. Right-back Andrei Ratiu — in the 40th minute — worked his way down to the byline with a sequence of step-overs, cut back, and Fran García converted. Ruggeri was left completely behind.
The second goal in the 45th minute grew from a catastrophic error by Lenglet. He lost the ball near the 18-yard line; from the resulting play Ilias Akhomach cut back, Isi Palazón's shot was parried by Oblak, and Óscar Valentín followed up. Oblak's handling played a part, but the nature of the move — and Lenglet's ball loss as its origin — was the real story of goal number two.
Rayo's third arrived on 76 minutes from a short-corner routine. Gumbau played it short; Álvaro García received and crossed; Novell Mendy rose highest and powered home the header. It was the killer blow.
Reuters described the closing stages in pointed terms: by the end, Rayo's players were passing it around the Atlético half to a soundtrack of "Olé!" from the stands. A relegation-threatened side doing that to a fourth-placed one.
'Don't Pick Your Games' — Oblak's Revolt and Simeone's Measured Response
After the match, Oblak gave an on-pitch interview in which he chose his words bluntly.
"It seems as though we have abandoned La Liga. We cannot drop games like this, and we cannot play like this."
"You cannot pick your games. You have to play to win every match. We came with the intention to win but we don't have the mentality to put results back-to-back. I have no other explanation."
Simeone addressed it head-on at the press conference.
"I don't agree with what Oblak said. The team did not pick their games. The performance was bad. When the opponent plays better, they win. That's all."
"The issue is often described as intensity, but that's not it. Intensity, desire to win, attitude — it is not about those things. It is simply that the quality of play was poor. Poor passes, poor crosses, inability to advance in the first phase. The opponent played better and was decisive."
This very public disagreement between player and manager is worth noting in isolation. Into the Calderón reported that Oblak earns €20 million per year. Meanwhile, Juan Musso has been consistently excellent in cup competition — FotMob 8.8 against Barcelona, strong ratings in the Copa against Betis — and debate over the No. 1 shirt could reignite. My own read: Oblak's words reflect genuine crisis as felt from the inside, while Simeone's response also has rational coherence. Whether fully committing to La Liga was ever realistic given the 15-point gap is genuinely debatable. But the nine-player rotation exposed the reserve squad's quality deficit in the most brutal possible way.
What Barrios' Absence Revealed — A Structural Flaw in Press Resistance
What this match made visible is the extent to which Pablo Barrios's absence affects Atlético's build-up play.
Barrios was out injured. Against Barcelona, Llorente had covered the void magnificently with box-to-box running and nine ball recoveries. For this match, however, Llorente himself was rested. The Mendoza–Cardoso midfield pairing was simply unable to advance against Rayo's press.
Simeone acknowledged it directly.
"We couldn't advance in the first phase. There were no transitions, no good passes, no good crosses."
Rayo's press deprived Atlético's back line of any time on the ball, consistently cutting off the outlets. With Barrios available, the midfielder can receive between the lines and play the ball forward. No player in the starting XI that evening possessed that capacity. Almadá, given a free role, provided some modest forward drive — three key passes — but it was the lone bright spot.
Cardoso's Yellow — A First-Half Shackle
Jonny Cardoso was cautioned in the 29th minute for a needless foul on Akhomach. Into the Calderón acknowledged that "he was looking to win the ball quickly and play it to Almadá or Baena", but criticised the unnecessary free-kick conceded.
The yellow had real implications: with a second card in the back of his mind, he could not ramp up his press intensity, and midfield control deteriorated further. Mendoza was then booked in the 52nd minute for another foul, ruling him out of the next fixture against Espanyol.
The validity of the first booking is debatable, but one thing is not: the rotated midfield concealed a structural fragility — one early card and the entire architecture of that position crumbles.
When the Goalkeeper Gets the Highest Rating, It's a Warning Sign
Scanning Atlético's recent La Liga results, an uncomfortable pattern emerges.
Against Betis (0–1 defeat) Oblak's multiple saves kept the score down. Against Levante (0–0) the defence again scraped a draw. In the Copa, Musso registered FotMob 8.8 against Barcelona and a high rating against Betis.
When the goalkeeper receives the match's top rating, it means the rest of the team is generating the goalkeeper's workload. Attacking breakdown, defensive overload, the goalkeeper's saves as the only bright light — this is an unsustainable structure and a clear warning signal.
In this match Oblak's ItC rating was 3, reflecting the three-goal concession rather than his personal performance. The handling error on the second goal is fair criticism; blaming the goalkeeper alone, though, when the team as a whole capitulated to Rayo's press, would be harsh.
5,335 at Butarque — The Absence of Vallecas and the Structural Crisis It Reflects
This match is inseparable from the structural problems that Rayo Vallecano as a club are living through.
La Liga postponed the previous home fixture against Real Oviedo due to the state of the Vallecas pitch, and moved this one to Butarque in Leganés. Rayo's players and staff have spoken out publicly this season, in collaboration with AFE (the Spanish footballers' union), about an "unusable pitch", an "ageing training ground" and some days with no hot water in the showers.
Every goal was greeted not with pure celebration but with a chant of "Presa, vete ya!" — "Out with Presa!" Five thousand, three hundred and thirty-five people, and the noise had a peculiar intensity.
On the pitch, a relegation-threatened side demolished a fourth-placed one 3–0. Off the pitch, the very foundations of that club are shaking. A victory that cannot quite be celebrated, a win weaponised as a protest — the ownership crisis inside a small Spanish club, in miniature.
Player Ratings
Substitutes
Looking Ahead — Two Key Questions
Rethinking the Rotation Strategy
Were nine changes too many? Given the two-day turnaround and the Champions League trip to Brugge three days later, the logic of protecting the first XI is understandable. The outcome, however — a first loss to this opponent in 13 years — exposed the reserve group's quality shortfall with brutal clarity. If Simeone truly believes, as he says, that "we need all 20 to 22 to fight", then structures must exist in everyday training to guarantee the reserve group a competitive baseline. Into the Calderón's post-Barcelona observation that "Lenglet and Giménez are surplus to requirements" was proved cruelly right by this result.
How to Define La Liga's Priority
Fifteen points behind Real Madrid. Catching that gap in 14 remaining matches is practically impossible. With a Copa semi-final second leg and a Champions League playoff tie on the horizon, how many resources should be directed at La Liga? Protecting fourth place and securing next season's Champions League spot seems like the realistic minimum while prioritising the cup competitions. But if Oblak's "we've abandoned La Liga" genuinely reflects the mood in the dressing room, the risk of a fractured squad cannot be ignored.
Sources: ESPN, Reuters, Into the Calderón, FotMob (Opta), WhoScored, beIN Sports, La Liga oficial, Yahoo Sports