Thomas Partey cameos as Atletico Madrid lose 2-1

Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey played a cameo in nine-man Atletico Madrid’s 2-1 defeat at Barcelona in the Spanish La Liga on Saturday.

Partey came on to replace Augusto Fernandez who picked up an injury and got stretchered off in the 76 minutes.

He was introduced by head coach Diego Simeone to help the visitors prevent Barcelona from causing a lot of havoc when they had been reduced to nine men.

Filipe Luis was shown a straight red card for a dreadful tackle on Messi before half-time and captain Diego Godin picked up a second yellow midway through the half for an irresponsible challenge on Suarez.

Atletico started strongly and took the lead through Koke within the first 10 minutes but Lionel Messi equalised on the half-hour mark by finishing off a sumptuous team move.

Luis Suarez then picked up on a long pass from Dani Alves just eight minutes later, expertly holding up the ball before finishing cleverly through the legs of goalkeeper Jan Oblak.