Atleti and HH earn a hard-fought 3 points
Atlético Madrid faced off against Bayer Leverkusen on this third leg of Group D in the UEFA Champions League. Atléti looked to keep pace with Juventus as leaders of the group. On the other hand, Bayer looked to secure their first points of the tournament.
Héctor Herrera regained the trust of his skipper, Diego Simeone, by playing all 90 minutes of the match. HH took advantage of the opportunity and contributed with hard-fought balls and solid distribution of the ball.
It was a heated match, and both looked to strike first. Bayer controlled possession of the ball for most of the match, but they could not bypass the Rojiblanco defense. Herrera almost scored his second goal of the tournament in the 73rd minute of the competition.
HH lobbed a shot just outside the large box towards the top righthand corner of goalkeeper, Lukáš Hrádecký. Hrádecký made an acrobatic leap to prevent the Azteca from scoring.
The winning goal eventually came in the 78th minute thanks to a beautiful header from Álvaro Morata. Los Colchoneros took the lead and the win, putting them in the driver seat to qualify for the next round. After the game, Herrera said, “It was very important for us to earn all three points.”
Next match for Atlético: Sat., October 26th against Athletic Bilbao (La Liga)
