Non-stop action. Great goals. Controversies galore. Sensational passes. Unreal drama. European football rarely lacks for talking points after any given weekend of football, but with so much happening it can often be hard to focus on the biggest moments.
ESPN India attempts to single out one moment from all the action across Europe's top 5 leagues (league action only) that lit up the weekend.
This weekend, despite plenty of deserving candidates, we pick Angel Correa's stunning solo strike in Atletico Madrid's 1-0 win over Real Betis.
1-0 to Atletico Madrid. How predictable. Diego Simeone has been at Atletico for 12 years now and he's won 363 games of football. 101 of them have been 1-0 wins.
The latest of those came late on Sunday night in LaLiga against a Champions-League-spot-chasing Real Betis. Eighty sixth minute, Angel Correa winner, 1-0 Atleti. Typical.
A bare-bones description of the goal would serve to merely reinforce the stereotype -- the ball went from centre-back to central midfielder to central attacking midfielder to striker to back of the net. Essentially, four passes, mostly straight through the middle, and that was that.
Except, that wasn't just that.
Now, normally, a 1-0 to Atletico Madrid wouldn't warrant much more than a casual glance from the neutral fan. After all, the 'how' of it all has rarely seemed to matter to Simeone. So it's generally a safe bet to assume what you'd get with a highlights package, however well produced... Defend, defend, defend. Score with a scrappy ricochet at the near post. Or perhaps a header from a set-piece. Maybe even a tap-in at the far post. What's new here? We've seen all this before. Everyone knows that this is what he does, what his teams do.
Where's the fun? Where's the pizzazz?
The answer, on Sunday, was simple: in Angel Correa's boots.
The move started simply enough, with Jose Gimenez firing a pass into the feet of Pablo Barrios. The 19-year-old academy graduate received it on the half-turn and within two touches moved it forward into the inside-right channel for Antoine Griezmann. Sporting a bright, pink-dyed hairdo since the turn of 2023 (after his family voted for the colour), Griezmann changed the tempo completely with a quick stab of a first-time pass forward, this time into the inside-left passage. It was a little in front of Saul Niguez, who left it. Behind him, Angel Correa got to the ball just before compatriot and Real Betis centre-back German Pezzella did.
Which is when the magic started.
Correa's first touch saw the ball hit his other leg and stop. At this point, Pezzella had fully committed to his forward lunge so Correa knew momentum was on his side. A punt forward, and he left the (much) bigger man for dead, shrugging off a last attempt to wrestle him away from the ball.
Aitor Ruibal had predicted this and came plowing in. He seemed favourite to get the ball when Correa did something remarkable -- backheel the ball with his right into his standing leg. The absurd rapidity of this move saw Ruibal screech past Correa and the ball and land with a cartoonish thud on his face; while Correa calmly entered the Betis box.
By now the other two in Betis' defence, Felipe and Juan Miranda were onto him and they came flying in from his right. A slight drop of the shoulder and Felipe had twisted blood. Another feint-plus-pullback combo and Miranda was slide tackling empty ether.
A quick stutter step to get his balance right (and suggest to the keeper he was going far post) and Correa was smashing the ball into the net on the near side.
Four defenders and a keeper left befuddled and side-stepped in five seconds and eight touches: this is not what they had signed up for.
The expressions around the box told quite the story: Felipe on his knees, arms waving about, his expression one of pure pain. Ruibal on all fours, head bowed, willing the earth to open up beneath him. Pezzella shaking his head in disgust as he walked away from the scene of his humbling.
Perhaps the best of all, though, had come a few seconds before the ball even went in: Atleti's Marcos Llorente, way out on the right wing, celebrating right after Correa jinked past Felipe, knowing, trusting, what was coming next. Correa may not have been having a great season, but Llorente's trust in him was absolute.
Correa's confidence, and even Llorente's belief, served to highlight one of the key (and slightly underrated) aspects of Diego Simeone's success: his man-management abilities.
Until Sunday, Correa had appeared in 23 LaLiga games, but only started nine. He had scored just five goals in the league this season. He's been played all across the park - right wing, centre-forward, support striker, left-wing. He'd been used as the ultimate utility man. And yet, when the time came, when his team most needed it, Correa decided that it's Him, he was the main character, the guy around which everything and everyone revolved.
This was 1-0 Atletico, the Angel Correa way. And boy, was it fun.