MADRID: Luis Surez followed up his promising debut for Atltico Madrid with a disappointing performance in his first start on Wednesday.
Three days after scoring two goals and setting up another in about 20 minutes off the bench in Atltico’s 6-1 win over Granada, Surez struggled in the team’s 0-0 draw at promoted Huesca.
The former Barcelona player started alongside young Portugal forward Joo Flix, but the duo failed to spark the attack for Diego Simeone’s team.
The Uruguay striker had the games best chance after a perfect through-ball by Flix in the 59th minute, but he failed to get past goalkeeper Andrs Fernndez inside the area and eventually had his shot blocked.
Surez was substituted by Diego Costa less than three minutes after the miss, but the Brazilian-born striker also couldn’t do much up front. Atltico pressured near the end but failed to capitalize on a couple of good opportunities from inside the area.
Huesca, back in the topflight after a year in the second division, was looking for its first win of the season after two draws and a loss. Huesca next visits Elche, another promoted club.
Defending champion Real Madrid later hosts winless Valladolid to try to win its second in a row after opening with a draw.
Barcelona visits unbeaten Celta Vigo on Thursday.
Atltico and Barcelona had their first two matches postponed because of the participation in the Champions League in August.
VILLARREAL WINS
Villarreal rebounded from a 4-0 loss at Barcelona with a 3-1 home win against Alavs.
Paco Alccer opened the scoring in the 13th minute and sealed the victory in the 67th. Gerard Moreno converted a 45th-minute penalty kick after Alavs had equalized through dgar Mndez in the 36th.
Alavs remains winless after four rounds. Villarreal had a draw and a win before the loss to Barcelona at the Camp Nou Stadium.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
___
Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni