Alex Baena came off the bench and rifled home an 89th-minute winner as Atletico Madrid ground out a 1-0 victory over Espanyol at the RCDE Stadium on Saturday, extending their winning run to six matches in all competitions and five straight in La Liga.
For 89 minutes this looked like the afternoon the streak died. Espanyol goalkeeper Angel Fortuno produced the performance of his season, Diego Simeone used every attacking card on his bench, and still the deadlock held — until Julian Alvarez teed up Baena just outside the box and the Spain international did the rest, arrowing the ball into the top-left corner with a minute of normal time remaining.
Fortuno's Wall Holds For 89 Minutes
Espanyol's game plan was honest and nearly perfect. Manolo Gonzalez's side sat in, defended their box in numbers and trusted Fortuno to handle the rest — and the goalkeeper almost delivered a famous point on his own.
Jonathan David was the first to suffer, his shot from a tight angle pushed wide in a quiet first half. Just after the hour, Marcos Llorente unleashed a fierce effort that Fortuno tipped against the top of the crossbar. Then came the siege: Fortuno smothered another David chance before denying Alvarez twice in quick succession, the second a brilliant fingertip save to turn behind a trivela from the Argentina international that looked destined for the corner.
The numbers told the story of the siege. As Stats Perform recorded, Atletico produced 1.34 expected goals from 19 shots to Espanyol's 0.53 from 10 attempts — and at the other end, Simeone's defence did not concede a single shot on target in the first half and just two across the whole match.
Baena Is Becoming Simeone's Difference-Maker
Simeone's substitutions changed the game in layers. Alvarez and Alex Grimaldo arrived at half-time, Llorente followed on 55 minutes, and on 62 minutes Baena replaced Lee Kang-in. It was the last of those calls that won the match.
In a 28-minute cameo, Baena created two chances before scoring the winner, taking his La Liga tally for the season to seven goal contributions — five goals and two assists. That is already two more than he managed in the entire previous campaign, when he produced two goals and three assists in 27 matches, and he sits just two goals short of the single-season scoring record he set with Villarreal in 2024-25.
There was relief folded into the winner for Alvarez, too. His pass for Baena was his first assist in La Liga this season — although the striker is still waiting for his first goal of 2026-27, a drought that is becoming the one cloud over Atletico's run. The club's own reaction, relayed by Flashscore's live coverage of the day's action across Europe, said it simply: three points in Barcelona.
So What Does It Mean For The Title Race?
Atletico's winning streak — the run we charted earlier this week — is no longer a promising start; it is a title credential. The victory lifts Simeone's side to 22 points from nine matches and keeps the pressure squarely on leaders Barcelona, who host third-placed Real Betis later on Saturday evening.
Just as importantly, this was the kind of win title challenges are actually built on: an away game drifting towards a frustrating draw, solved late by squad depth rather than a superstar's moment of magic. With Real Madrid tying Bellingham down to a new long-term deal this weekend, the arms race at the top of La Liga is accelerating — and right now, nobody in Spain is in better form than Simeone's side.
Beyond the Final Whistle: This is the win that should frighten Barcelona and Real Madrid most. Atletico did not play brilliantly, Espanyol's goalkeeper was inspired, and it still did not matter — because Simeone now has a bench full of players who can decide games, and Baena is quickly becoming the most decisive of them all. Grind out enough 1-0s like this and the streak stops being a story and starts being a coronation march. Can anyone stop Atletico's run — and is Baena now the first name on Simeone's teamsheet? Have your say in the comments.
