Nine games without conceding a goal • Seventeen victories in a row
Atletico Madrid remains resolute in their stadium after beating Betis (2-0) in the cup, they racked up the 17th consecutive victory at the Calderon. In addition, the rojiblancos made it nine games in a row without conceding at the Vicente Calderon, a club record in the 109 year history of the club.
On the banks of the Manzanares Atletico have this season beaten Athletic (4-0), Valladolid (2-1), Rayo (4-3), Malaga (2-1), Osasuna (3-1), Getafe (2-0) , Sevilla (4-0), Deportivo (6-0), Celta (1-0) and Zaragoza (2-0) in League; Jaén (1-0), Getafe (3-0) and Betis (2 - 0) in Cup, and Academic (2-1), Viktoria Plzen (1-0) and Hapoel (1-0), in Europe. Coupled with the victory against Malaga (2-1) in the final game of last season.
18/ 01/ 13 Atletico never sleep and strikes first in the cup
Falcao and Filipe give the advantage to Atlético (2-0) ahead of next Thursdays second leg in the Villamarín
Atletico got the off to the perfect start in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. Simeone and his men took the opportunity to put on another great show with another fantastic performance in front of their fans. Atletico took just ten minutes to register their first goal with a header from Falcao from Raul Garcia cross after great work from Diego Costa. Despite the late kick off, The rojiblancs were wide awake and looking to punish Betis.
Aware that the tie is a long one and that one goal didn’t give much security ahead of the scond leg, Simeone’s men did not stop and continued to look for a second making the road to the semi-finals a more comfortable one. And inside the first half Atleti doubled their lead with the two Brazilians linking up. It was again excellent work from Costa who centred the ball after great work down the left, the Betis defence could only half clear the ball and Filipe Luis was on hand to smash the ball home making it 2-0 before the break.
Atletico were repeating the performance from the last round against Getafe, highlightend in the coincidence of Filipe scoring in that game after good work from Diego Costa. The Betis manager Pepe Mel was forced to change thing in a bit to close the gap. The Andalusians sat in fourth place in the league were being blown away by Atletico. Moments after the goal from Filipe, a quadruple chance fell to the visitors but Atletico kept it out. Molina, Perquis, Vilarchao and Ruben Castro all tried turning the ball home, but a combination of good defending and great goalkeeping from Courtois kept them out.
The Vicente Calderon faithful have not seen their side concede a goal in eight matches and Betis did all they could to end the record. Shortly after the Betis pressure Atletico almost made it 3-0. Falcao finished off after a neat layoff from Raul Garcia but the goal was disallowed as the man from Navarro was just offside. It stayed at 2-0 at halftime.
The second half was tight and became a duel between the 2nd and the 4th in the league without as much difference between the two as in the first half. Chances were fewer and both sides defended well but entering the final ten minutes, Betis turn up the heat as they went looking for an away goal.
With 85 minutes on the clock, Jorge Molina went close with a header before Atleti went to the other end and Mario also went close, rising well to head just wide. Right until the end Simeone's men gave all they had to keep the two goal lead and were rewarded for their hard work with a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Atletico extended their record to 17 straight wins and nine games without conceding a goal in the Calderon. A fantastic run ahead of Sunday league game against Levante where they’ll look to continue their record breaking run.
18/ 01/ 13 Simeone: "We had a very good first half"
The Argentine coach is not relaxing despite the 2-0 lead
Diego Pablo Simeone appeared before the media satisfied with the work of his team and the 2-0 lead achieved in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. "We had a very good first half. In the second we sat a little bit too deep but we still created chances. We have faced the fourth in the league and done very well. Betis played very well, with interesting players that played a very good match. we did what we had to do," summed Simeone.
Looking to the second leg, the red and white side will take nothing for granted and try to close the tie in the Benito Villamarin. "The result was good. It's not over but I think we will find a stronger opponent than we saw here with their fans behind them. We have to play our game as we have been doing it with humility."