Las Palmas spring huge shock by ending 36 year wait for win over Atletico Madrid

Las Palmas 2-1 Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid were the form side in La Liga coming into their long trip to Gran Canaria, but Las Palmas pulled off a famous win on the Canary Islands.

Los Colchoneros could have moved level with Girona and Real Madrid at the top of the table with a game in hand, and started off aggressively on the counter attack. Rodrigo Riquelme was the key threat, and forced two saves from Alvaro Valles, as they looked more dangerous.

Yet their aggression was nullified by the calm possession of Las Palmas, who were playing the game they wanted to from the very first minutes. Things took a definitive turn just 10 minutes after half-time. Sergi Cardona kept a ball in on the right, found Alberto Moleiro inside, and he layed it off to Javi Munoz. His clever dummy allowed Kirian Rodriguez to take a touch and reverse his shot into the bottom corner past Oblak.

The match took on a different tone from that point on. But the Canary Islanders remained cool and stuck to the plan, whereas a furious Diego Simeone withdrew Antoine Griezmann and Koke Resurreccion, seemingly without injury at the time of writing. As Atletico tried to push forward, Las Palmas didn’t stop pushing.

With 15 minutes to go, Munoz won the ball back high up the pitch and gave it to Munir El Haddadi. He drove at the defence, slipped Benito Ramirez in down the left, and his fierce shot beat Jan Oblak at the near post.

Atletico Madrid did eventually respond, with Riquelme, now on the right, whipping a ball in for Alvaro Morata. In the form he was in, there was no missing. Morata could have been the hero in stoppage time too. Pablo Barrios thundered a bouncing ball at Valles, and Morata was onto the rebound, touching it round the goalkeeper. From a tight angle, he could only hit the bar though.

Las Palmas found a way through the final minutes, securing their first win over Atletico Madrid since 1987. A famous win, Garcia Pimienta and his team gave a raucous Estadio Gran Canaria reason to celebrate all weekend, with an excellent performance, and a better result.