Deportivo La Coruna vs. Atletico Madrid: Winners and Losers from La Liga
Atletico Madrid let their lead slip at Riazor as Deportivo de la Coruna fought back to earn a 1-1 draw.
The hosts could have won it when Faycal Fajr's strike came back off the crossbar in the final few minutes. They were more than the value of their one point against Diego Simeone's title contenders.
It means the Rojiblancos, who are third in the table, could go behind Celta Vigo and Villarreal, depending on their results, and drop to fifth.
Here are the winners and losers from Friday night's clash.
Winner: Victor Sanchez
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First things first. It is time, and possibly even overdue, to salute Deportivo manager Victor Sanchez.
The table itself is fair recognition of his achievements so far, with the club sixth after 10 games, although that could change after the likes of Sevilla, Valencia and Eibar play over the weekend.
Even if it does, their former player and now coach is doing a sterling job.
His team shone in the second half against Atletico, going toe-to-toe with one of the strongest outfits in European football. Organised at the back, with the threat of Antoine Griezmann and Jackson Martinez totally snuffed out, and dangerous going forward, Deportivo were good to watch.
Drawing away at Valencia, beating Rayo Vallecano away and crushing Espanyol at home were the three best results of the season so far for Deportivo, before this monster display to earn them a point against Atletico.
After Sanchez retired from playing, he learned his trade as an assistant manager, at Getafe, Sevilla and Olympiacos. The Deportivo job is his first as an actual coach, and so far it is going swimmingly.
Of course, he still has a long way to go, and if things turn sour at some point, nobody should be surprised, because these things happen when someone starts out as a manager. But so far, so good.
Loser: Diego Simeone
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By contrast to Victor Sanchez, Diego Simeone won't be overly pleased with his side's start to the season.
The Atletico Madrid manager wouldn't have minded coming into the game two points behind Barcelona and Real Madrid, because it's a closeable gap.
However, when he entered Riazor on Friday night, he would have been hoping to leave the stadium at the top of the league.
Atletico missed their chance to head the table again, even if it might only have been for one night.
But what will hurt Simeone the most is that he was responsible.
He decided his team could sit on their 1-0 lead, taking off his key man of recent times, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, presumably to rest him for the Champions League clash in midweek.
Atletico didn't push with any great desire for a second goal, and so when Deportivo equalised, they were stunned.
It was a poor mistake for the goal, as we will discuss later, rather than a problem they must solve, but of greater concern is that they never looked like going back in front. Simeone threw on Fernando Torres, who, despite a handful of goals, is not good enough to play at the top level any more. At least for a side that are hoping to win the league.
Winner: Yannick Ferreira Carrasco
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Yannick Ferreira Carrasco has been Atletico's shining light in recent weeks. He was man of the match against Valencia and scored a brilliant goal in that game.
Although he didn't find the net here, he did have a big hand in their goal, with his ball across eventually finding Tiago, who rattled it home.
The Belgian has slowly and surely found his feet since joining the club and looks capable of improving further still. He was, Tiago aside, the only player on the Rojiblancos side who will go home after the game and believe he did all that he could to win the game.
Diego Simeone substituted him early in the second half, perhaps looking to wrap him in cotton wool for the Champions League trip to face Astana on Tuesday night. It was a big mistake.
Loser: Jose Gimenez
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This is a rare chance to put Jose Gimenez in the "losers" column. It's not a place you expect him to end up many times over the rest of what is sure to be a long career, injury threat aside.
The Uruguayan, 20, is already one of the best central defenders in La Liga and has a huge future ahead of him. He has been learning from his team-mate for club and country, Diego Godin, and anything but a stellar career would be a disappointment for him.
Against Deportivo he learned a valuable lesson.
The defender was dilly-dallying with the ball on the right-hand side of his area, Depor's left, and lost it to Lucas Perez, who found the net to equalise for the Galician side.
Gimenez's error directly cost his side two points. Of course, as we discussed earlier, Atletico could have done more to seal the game before the goal that leveled it, but there's no getting away from his mistake.
Winner: Lucas Perez
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You might have heard of Lucas Perez. With six goals in La Liga this season, he now has more than Antoine Griezmann, Jackson Martinez and Lionel Messi.
Granted Messi has been injured, but whereas Atletico's star strikers have been off the mark recently, Depor's forward has been bang on.
When Jose Gimenez dallied, it was Perez that capitalised. He still had a lot to do, though, after winning the ball back by the edge of the box. Perez came inside, shimmying wonderfully away from Jan Oblak, Atletico's big goalkeeper, to squeeze a strike home.
The 27-year-old now has as many goals as he scored last season in La Liga in less than half as many games.
His loan spell with the club was good, from PAOK, but few expected him to explode in this fashion. What's more, he's a local lad who is now finally getting the chance to shine for his favourite team.
He'd been on trial with Deportivo as a boy but eventually started his career elsewhere in Spain, including Atletico Madrid. So being the man who pulled his hometown side level against the first team that took him on would have been an emotional moment.
