Atlético Madrid Faces Setback in Bilbao as Llorente Urges Álvarez to Shine

Atlético Madrid walked into San Mamés unbeaten and walked out with questions piling up. A 3-0 defeat to Athletic Bilbao, their first loss of the season, left the dressing room stunned and their senior players demanding a reaction — starting with Julián Álvarez.

The Argentine forward, whose summer was dominated by a failed move to Barcelona and the club’s insistence he stay, finally stepped back onto the pitch. He entered in the second half with Atlético already two goals down. He never got close to rescuing them.

For Marcos Llorente, that has to change quickly.

“Julián is a decisive player for us, and he knows that well,” Llorente told ESPN, making no attempt to hide how much responsibility sits on Álvarez’s shoulders. “He will gradually gel with the team, and the sooner the better because we desperately need his goals, and we must support him so he returns to his 100% level as soon as possible.”

No striker, no punch

The night had started with a bold – or baffling – decision. Atlético lined up without a recognised centre-forward. The coach handed the attacking roles to Álex Baena and Kang-in Lee, leaving both Álvarez and deadline-day loan signing Jonathan David on the bench.

For 45 minutes, the gamble looked manageable. Atlético stayed in the game, kept the crowd relatively quiet, and headed into the break trailing but not broken.

Then came the collapse.

Two minutes of chaos

From the restart, Athletic Bilbao tore through them. Nico Williams struck in the 46th minute, Robert Navarro followed in the 48th. In the space of 120 seconds, Atlético’s shape, confidence and resistance all evaporated. Oihan Sancet’s late third only confirmed what everyone in the stadium already knew.

“You could say we lost the match in just 120 seconds,” defender Dávid Hancko admitted. “It was a very bad start to the second half, we lost concentration for two minutes and I don’t know if we relaxed after the break. They were difficult moments, and perhaps it’s good that this stumble happened early at the start of the season.”

Llorente went even harder on the timeline of the collapse.

“We threw the match away in the first five minutes of the second half,” he said. “Those five minutes killed our ambition and afterwards we couldn’t impose pressure or score a goal to unsettle the opponent. This should not happen again because we produced a good first half, and we must correct the mistakes and study the reasons for what happened.”

Álvarez under the spotlight

Amid the wreckage of the result, all eyes inevitably turned to Álvarez. This was his first appearance since the transfer window closed, the first since Atlético blocked his path to Barcelona and nailed their colours to his name.

He didn’t score. He didn’t flip the game. Yet inside the camp, the message is clear: he remains central to their plans.

Hancko highlighted exactly why his teammates are clinging to that belief.

“It was clear that he was in good shape and wanted to take responsibility and make a difference,” the defender said. “Of course, a striker loses some balls against defensive blocks, but we saw those attacking flashes when he turned and shot with his left foot.”

Then came the line that will echo around the club’s training ground this week.

“He makes a difference for us, and I am very happy that he stayed. The whole team supports him and stands behind him, we need him and I think he needs us too.”

Those words frame the reality: Atlético have hitched a large part of their attacking future to Álvarez. Now they need the goals to match the faith.

A brutal week ahead

There is no soft landing from a defeat like this. No chance to quietly reset.

Atlético now fly to Anfield to face Liverpool in the Champions League, one of the most unforgiving venues in European football, before heading to face Real Sociedad in La Liga. Two hostile grounds, two high-intensity opponents, and a team still replaying those disastrous minutes in Bilbao in their heads.

The slip at San Mamés might be written off as an early-season jolt. Or it might be remembered as the night the alarm bells started ringing.

How quickly Julián Álvarez finds his scoring touch will go a long way towards deciding which way this story goes.