In a sun-drenched stadium of the Academy of Atletico, Club NXT U19 went looking for revenge for the undeserved defeat in The Nest. After first falling behind via a penalty, Blue -Black was able to get the win in the second half after goals from Kaye Furo and Lenn De Smet.
Club NXT embellished the first chance of the match. However, Muric headed over goal on a corner kick. Atletico's first attack immediately earned them a penalty kick. Ordoñez wished to clear the ball and lightly touched Urzain Egido who eagerly went down. Goalkeeper Vroman chose the right side but just couldn't keep the penalty out of his goal. Niño Heredio brought the score to 1-0. Blue-Black quickly went in search of the equalizer. De Roeve painted the ball cleverly in front of goal, but goalkeeper Iturbe boxed the leather away. Both teams kept each other in balance with chances on both sides. The Brugge goallie prevented a double by stopping a Raihani shot with his foot.
Liam De Smet then tried to cut in Engels' corner kick, but to no avail. Raihani then missed the 2-0 by a hair when he kicked Diaz's cross inches wide. Club NXT U19 pulled more and more toward Iturba's goal. Talbi accelerated on the right and sent a nice cross ball to Seys that went just wide of the goal post outside. Afterwards, the same Seys popped rock hard into the pack on yet another corner kick by Engels. Captain Engels also missed the opportunity for the equalizer. His shot went narrowly wide of the Atletico goal. We went to rest with a 1-0 deficit.
GET ON AND GET OUT
Atletico started the second half aggressively in search of a second goal. An effort by Diaz fortunately rolled past the Bruges goal. Sem Audoor continued at speed down the left flank and gave a perfect assist to Muric. Goalkeeper Iturba could narrowly keep the ball out of the bottom left corner. Both coaches replaced some players. At Club NXT U19, 15-year-old Kaye Furo made his debut replacing Muric. He was only just on the field and scored the 1-1 after fumbling in the penalty area. A few minutes later Engels kicked a perfect corner kick that was extended with the head into goal by Lenn De Smet. 1-2 a deserved turnaround! At Atletico, the game became more sloppy and rushed. Club NXT easily held on. The home team ran out of time and committed some serious fouls. Fortunately, the hard-working Seys survived a vicious kick. Shortly before the end of regular playing time, goalkeeper Vroman stopped a final attempt by the home team through Gismara. Club NXT thus deservedly won 1-2 on the Atletico field and had its revenge bitten. Club NXT has six points in the group and is tentatively third behind leaders Porto and Atletico. Next game follows the distant trip to Lommel, in search of another three-peat in the league.
Club NXT: Kiany Vroman, Joaquin Seys, Kyriani Sabbe, Joël Ordoñez, Denzel De Roeve, Chemsdine Talbi, Sem Audoor, Arne Engels (70' Laurens Goemaere), Liam De Smet, Lenn De Smet, Irsan Muric (57' Kaya Furo).
Coach: Nicky Hayen.
Atletico de Madrid: Alejandro Iturbe, Alvaro Santamaria, Ilias Kostis, Daniel Moreno, Emmanuel Mbomio Angue, Javier Diaz Igual (56' Francisco Gomez), Aitor Gismera, Fabian Urzain Egido (62' Ivan Vasiljevic Djorjevic), Adrian Niño Heredia (32' Marcos Denia), Abdellah Raihani Ennaou (56' Oscar Gonzalez Campos), Julio Diaz.
Coach: Fernando Torres.
Goals: 9' Heredia 1-0 (penalty), 59' Furo 1-1, 63' Lenn De Smet 1-2.
Yellow cards: De Roeve, Engels Gomez, Diaz, Vroman
Referee: Anastasios Papapetrou (Greece)
Stadium: Atletico de Madrid Centro Deportivo Wanda Alcala de Henares.