MADRID: Thiago Almada earned Atletico Madrid a 1-0 victory over Osasuna on Saturday in La Liga to climb to fourth with his first goal for the club.

The Argentina international netted after 69 minutes, set up by Atletico coach Diego Simeone’s son Giuliano Simeone to take the Rojiblancos six points behind leaders Barcelona.

Goalkeeper Jan Oblak made a superb save late on to deny Ante Budimir and secure his side their victory.

Atletico started the season poorly but are now unbeaten in their last six games across all competitions.

“I’m very happy for my first goal but the most important thing is that the team won,” said Almada.

The 24-year-old joined from Botafogo this summer as part of a big squad overhaul.

“We are going step by step to complete our objective, we have to get it into our heads that things will go well.”

Atletico thought they had taken an early lead through Alex Baena but his goal was ruled out for offside against Antoine Griezmann, who was deemed to be interfering with play.

Despite enjoying the better of the game Atletico could not find a way through until Almada struck.

“They have a great team and we were back defending... the difference was [the quality] in the box, we didn’t get the goal we needed to get a draw,” said Osasuna goalkeeper Sergio Herrera, who made eight saves.

On Sunday, Elche and Athletic Bilbao played out a goalless draw to remain seventh and eighth, respectively, while relegation-threatened Real Socidad drew 1-1 against Celta Vigo, 17th.

Sociedad’s Carlos Soler scored in the 89th minute to snatch a point against 10-man Celta. Pablo Duran gave Celta the lead in the 20th minute before team-mate Carl Starfelt was sent off for a second yellow in the first-half stoppage time.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2025