In the rippling moments of the 53rd minute of the game, Atletico showed a textbook attack, Lemar skillfully dribbled in and accurately straight to Renan Lodi who was right behind him, the latter did not stick to the ball and passed it directly to Correa who easily broke through the goal to complete the second goal, and Atletico's lead was quickly extended to 2-0! Statistics reveal that Correa has scored 41 goals in La Liga, 20 of which were first goals, making him Atletico's goal-scoring wonderkid. It's worth noting that in Atletico's first goal in the New Year's league in the last 5 years, Correa has bagged 3 of them.
Atletico missed a chance to increase their lead in the 67th minute when Carrasco's long range shot hit the post and bounced back luckily. It wasn't until the 75th minute that Falcao came on as a substitute, playing against his old team for the first time since leaving in 2013. Nonetheless, Atletico sealed a 2-0 victory, earning the crucial three points. The victory allowed coach Simeone to finally break his losing streak in La Liga, and Atletico made it six wins in a row against Rayo Vallecano, whose last loss was nine years ago, a 1-2 defeat. It's worth noting that Atletico overtook Rayo in the match, moving back into the top four with a two-point advantage, allowing coach Simeone to take a breather. In the La Liga table, Real Madrid and Sevilla are in the top two, Betis is in the third place with 33 points, Atletico Madrid is in the fourth place with 32 points, Rayo Vallecano is in the fifth place with 30 points, Real Sociedad is in the sixth place with 29 points and Barcelona and Valencia are both in the sixth place with 28 points. The gap between the six teams is only 5 points, so the competition for the top four in the league is getting more and more intense.
