Barcelona: Atletico Madrid beat Athletic Bilbao 3-2 in La Liga on Saturday but only after the video assistant referee (VAR) had confirmed Diego Godin’s dramatic injury-time winner. Athletic Bilbao took the lead on 36 minutes through Inaki Williams. Thomas Partey scored a spectacular equaliser on 61 minutes, but the joy was short-lived by Atletico Madrid fans because three minutes later they lost the lead again. Williams stuck from Iker Muniain’s assist to score his second goal of the game. Thomas turned provider on 80 minutes when he set up Rodri to head Atletico Madrid back on level terms.
And in injury time the injured Godin scored from Antoine Griezmann’s assist. VAR reviewed the goal for a possible offside before it was confirmed to give Atletico three valuable points.
The win moves Atletico back to second place behind leaders Barcelona. Atletico coach Diego Simeone had decided to leave his injured captain on the field throwing him forward to see if he could force a late goal.
He said: “It’s emotional. Football is about more than styles or forms. It has an emotional component to it.
“We know what it is like to lose finals in the 93rd minute and tonight we got a late win because of a player with a huge heart.
“When Diego first got injured, the first reaction is to take him off, but then we decided to throw him forward.
“It’s difficult to mark someone who can’t really run. Do you leave him alone or not?
“The victory came so late on and then just to add extra emotion we had to go through VAR before the goal was given.”
Earlier, Valencia picked up just their second win of the season by beating Getafe 1-0 away.
Dani Parejo scored from the spot with 10 minutes remaining after Bruno Gonzalez pulled back Kevin Gameiro who was straining to divert a shot past Getafe keeper David Soria.
The referee reviewed the incident after being prompted by VAR and awarded the penalty.
Bruno was also booked, and, having been cautioned four minutes earlier for a foul on Rodrigo, he saw red and Getafe completed the match with 10 men. “It’s the first time VAR has worked in our favour,” Valencia’s Francis Coquelin said. “We made a lot of chances to score more. This is a very important result for us after so many draws.” — dpa
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