After taking a three-goal lead, Diego Simeone replaced Fernando Torres and Griezmann for Feng Quan and Mandzukic successively.

Although the departure of Feng Quan and Mandzukic caused the defensive pressure of the Sevilla team to drop sharply, they had already lost the confidence to come back from three goals behind, so the Sevilla team not only failed to close the gap in the score in the remaining games, but was also scored by substitute Torres to score the icing on the cake.

A week later, Atletico Madrid hosted Valencia at home.

After the first 25 rounds of La Liga, although Valencia has been opened up by the top of the table Atletico Madrid by 19 points, but the previous four rounds of league wins, scoring 9 and not conceding a goal, they still attracted enough attention from Diego Simeone.

In the match against Valencia, Diego Simeone sent all the main players except Godin, who was suspended for accumulating yellow cards.

Despite Valencia's recent hot form, coach Nuno Espirito Santo has opted for a defensive-oriented strategy.

It is true that Valencia have won all of their previous four league games without conceding a goal, but there is still a big gap compared to Atletico Madrid. You must know that since losing to Barcelona away, Atletico Madrid has not only won 8 consecutive victories, but also scored 29 goals and conceded only 3 goals.

Especially Feng Quan, who returned to the team after the Asian Cup journey, scored 12 goals in 5 rounds of league games.

Therefore, if you play against Atletico Madrid, which has a full style, it is tantamount to a suicidal act.

In order to stifle Atletico Madrid's attack to the maximum, Valencia coach Nuno has taken great pains, not only offering a combination of three central defenders at the back, but also arranging two defensive midfielders in the midfield.

Although Nuno once used such a lineup to draw away from Barcelona and beat Real Madrid by one goal at home, their defense still failed after holding out for nearly half an hour against Atletico Madrid, who were at the best of the forward trio.

With Sevilla FC having a three-centre-back combination, it is difficult for even an air bulgar like Mandzukic to take advantage of the high ball race.

As a result, after several unsuccessful attempts to grab points in the opening stages, Mandzukic began to retreat frequently to play for Feng Quan and Griezmann.

At the beginning, Valencia coach Nuno didn't care too much about Mandzukic's retreat, after all, the Croatian striker rarely had the experience of scoring from a distance in his career, and basically relied on grabbing points in front of the goal to score.

Therefore, Nuno did not ask the central defenders to follow Mandzukic, but continued to let them stick to the penalty area, and even if they did not send a special person to follow Mandzukic, the team's two central midfielders would interfere with him enough.

However, Nuno overlooked a problem, and the main task he assigned to the two midfielders in the opening game was to get the ball on the wing, and the midfielders close to that side should go over to help the full-backs at the first time, while the other midfielder had to protect the edge of the box from the wind to cut inside the goal.

When Mandzukic retreats, there will inevitably be a midfielder to interfere with him, and the other midfielder will not be able to do the dual task of assisting the wing and protecting the edge of the penalty area at the same time.

In the case that the midfielder could not help the right-back Barragan in the first place, Feng Quan's inward cut shot was like entering no one's land. If it weren't for Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves' two saves, I'm afraid Feng Quan would have ended the suspense of the game long ago.

Seeing that Feng Quan turned his team's backline upside down, Nuno's reaction was not slow. He first asked Otamendi to defend Mandzukic, and then let the defender Fuego move closer to the area where Feng Quan was located, trying to cut off the connection between Feng Quan and his teammates. At the same time, he also made the position of Mustafi in the middle of the three central defenders premise, so that he could come forward to block the first time when Feng Quan cut inside the goal.

Although Nuno's adjustment can be called the right medicine and basically limit Feng Quan's inward shooting, there are more than two goalscorers in the Madrid Arena.

In the 26th minute of the first half, Feng Quan relied on his superior individual ability to force an inward cut to the edge of the big penalty area, and cooperated with Mandzukic to hit the wall near the top of the arc of the penalty area, and then put on a long-range shot from the periphery.

At this time, Barragán, Fuego and Mustafi tried to block Feng Quan's shot from the left, center and right directions.

However, Feng Quan did not choose to force the goal this time, but rubbed the bottom of the football with his right foot and sent a pick pass towards the huge gap in the right rib of the penalty area.

In the next moment, Griezmann, who was originally cruising on the right side, quickly inserted into the gap on the right side of the penalty area, and then quickly adjusted his center of gravity, and directly picked up his left foot to complete a volley without waiting for the football to land.

Although Diego Alves was in good shape today, he was a little unprepared for Feng Quan's sudden choice to pick a pass because Feng Quan's previous shots after cutting inside had already made him form a conditioned reflex.

Therefore, before Diego Alves could complete the whole set of saves, the ball shot by Griezmann was already grazed by the post on the right side of the goal and drilled into the net.

Although Valencia conceded a goal with more than an hour to go, Nuno did not intend to give it a go and continued to keep the team in the same form as they were.

At first, Diego Simeone thought Valencia was trying to get through the final stages of the first half smoothly, and then suddenly salvage the defeat in the second half. However, it wasn't until 10 minutes into the second half that Nuno replaced the veteran Fuego with young defender Felipe that Diego Simeone finally decided that his opponent had really given up the game.

In fact, Nuno's choice is still very correct, the lessons of Atletico Madrid's previous opponents have long been there, even if he chooses to give it a go, he may not be able to save the defeat, but will be used by Atletico Madrid to use the fast counterattack that he is best at to expand the advantage. Rather than this, it is better to win with less loss, after all, the league is not a cup competition, and in many cases, the amount of goal difference will directly affect the final position of the team.

Seeing that the opponent has no intention of fighting, Diego Simeone certainly does not want to rush to the end, let alone face the difficult Spaniard away next week.

So, in the 19th minute of the second half, Diego Simeone replaced Feng Quan and Griezmann with Torres and Mario Suarez, and played a "tacit understanding" with the opponent.

Even so, substitute Fernando Torres scored his second league goal since returning in the 39th minute of the second half.

In the end, two goals from Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres gave Atletico Madrid their 25th win of the season and continued to lead La Liga by nine points.

The only regrettable thing about the game was that Feng Quan failed to score a goal, thus ending Feng Quan's record of 20 consecutive league games (last season's last game, and the first 19 appearances this season).