Pubill singled out after a calamitous first half in Stuttgart

Rubén Uría reviews a dreadful first half from Atlético in Stuttgart: German chances from the very first minute, Oblak keeping the side alive and a 1-0 that came after another giveaway by Pubill.

Rubén Uría pieces together the first half of Stuttgart v Atlético and finds little worth salvaging. The start, he says, could not have been more calamitous: after 20 seconds Bilal, who drove Atlético mad, almost scored, and at the 40-second mark Oblak needed two attempts to stop what could have been the opener. Two chances in under a minute.

Then came two volleys from Stiller, in the 7th and 10th minutes, and Atlético's first attempt did not arrive until the 29th, a header wide from Pubill after a corner. Pubill is, in fact, the name of the night for Rubén, who describes his performance as disastrous: three or four unbelievable losses of possession, the last of them while trying to play out from the back, which ended in a shot from outside the box and the German goal.

The verdict on those 45 minutes is damning: an Atlético side heavily outplayed, with positioning problems and errors from Pubill, Llorente and Giuliano, against a German team that ran over them in the first half-hour. Marc Pubill has got Atleti fans used to seeing him perform at a very high level almost every time, but yesterday, truth be told, he played a very poor game. Perhaps his worst since signing for Atlético de Madrid.