体坛英语新闻：Eibar make Atletico struggle on home debut

MADRID, Aug. 30 (Xihnua) -- Defending BBVA Primera Liga champions Atletico Madrid struggled to a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to recently Eibar on Saturday evening.

Atletico had looked to be on their way to a comfortable win after Joao Mirando and Mario Mandzukic had put them 2-0 ahead after just 25 minutes.

Eibar have the lowest budget in Spain, but fought back after Abraham scored a spectacular shot shortly afterwards and despite displaying some of their new signings, such as 30 million euro forward, Antoine Griezmann, Atletico spent much of the second half holding on for a draw.

Saturday kicked off in Athletic Club Bilbao's San Mames Stadium where there was a party atmosphere following Athletic's 3-1 win over Napoli to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League on Wednesday night and the party continued as Athletic defeated a hard-working Levante 3-0 with headed goals from Aritz Aduriz just after the half hour, Ander Iturraspe on 50 minutes and an Iker Muniain tap in with 15 minutes remaining.

Cordoba and Celta Vigo braved temperatures of over 35 degrees centigrade in Cordoba's first home game since returning to the Primera Liga.

The side from Andalusia fell behind to a goal from Orellana at the start of the second half, but took their first point of the campaign thanks to Fede Cantabia's equalizer 11 minutes into a thrilling second half.

Sevilla gave warning of their promise as they won 2-1 away to Espanyol in the 11pm kick off. Carlos Bacca and Iborra put the visitors 2-0 ahead and Christian Stauni's late goal was nothing more than a consolation for the home side, who disappointed on Sergio Gonzalez's home debut as coach

The round of games began on Friday and saw another impressive performance from a new-look Valencia and striker Paco Alcazar was able to celebrate his call up for the Spain national squad with a goal in a comfortable 3-0 win over Malaga, who were reduced to 10 men early in the game after Darder was shown a direct red card.

Meanwhile a scant 4,000 fans turned up to watch Getafe defeat Almeria 1-0.