Deportivo de La Coruña W vs Atletico Madrid W Match Recap - Oct 19, 2025

Deportivo de La Coruña Harness Late Energy, Hold Atletico Madrid to 1-1 Draw and Shake Up the Top Three in Primera División Femenina

On an autumn afternoon under Galician clouds, Deportivo de La Coruña found resilience where so many doubted it remained, clawing back to force a 1-1 draw against high-flying Atletico Madrid and casting fresh intrigue on Spain’s Primera División Femenina pecking order.

It was a contest marked from the outset by two teams traveling in opposite directions—Atletico seeking to steady their title pursuit after a jolting week, Deportivo searching for glimmers of progress in an early season of hard knocks. But inside Estadio Municipal de Riazor, where supporters braced for storm or sunshine in equal measure, the two sides discovered common ground: neither could find a finish worthy of all three points.

Atletico, starting the afternoon ten places and eight points ahead of their hosts, wasted little time in justifying their status. Within six minutes, Venezuelan striker Gabriela García lashed home the opener, punishing some early Deportivo dithering in defense. The goal was characteristic of García’s predatory instincts—a lightning-quick run onto a through ball, the finishing touch angled low past the home goalkeeper, her celebration a momentary exhale for a team showing recent scars.

And if there was a sense that the visitors might build from there, all evidence seemed to suggest it. Atletico knocked the ball around with confidence through midfield architect Vilde Bøe Risa and pressed for a second, perhaps still haunted by the 0-6 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona a week prior and the Champions League heartbreak days later. They carved a handful of chances—one, a stinging drive from Fiamma Benítez that forced a sprawling save; another, a curling shot from Andrea Medina that whistled just wide. Yet the clinical edge faded as halftime approached and Deportivo’s back line, previously so porous, found cohesion in adversity.

For Deportivo, the journey to this moment had been one of survival. Winless in four, left to rue defensive lapses and missed opportunities, their campaign had thus far been a study in frustration. Points against top-tier sides had slipped away late; leads had evaporated. But spark flickered anew after the interval, fueled by the Riazor crowd urging them forward and by the knowledge that every result shapes their fight to climb free of the bottom third.

The match’s hinge came with 20 minutes left. A loose ball after a well-worked set piece bounced invitingly at the edge of the Atletico area. A Deportivo midfielder—identity unclear amid the scrum—pounced and drove the ball through traffic, a shot deflecting enough to wrong-foot keeper Lola Gallardo and nestle inside the post. The roar in Riazor matched the tension: equalizer, redemption, belief restored. Players celebrated at the corner flag, swept up in a rare moment of fortune.

From there, urgency replaced pattern. Atletico, briefly shaken, threw numbers forward. García nearly doubled her tally with a glanced header in the 78th, while substitute Luany found half a yard but blazed over. Tempers flared, each duel more desperate than the last, but the benches remained intact—no red cards, just rising pulses and the knowledge that a single mistake could betray everything.

When the final whistle echoed across the terraces, the draw settled with contrasting weight. For Deportivo, the point was more than arithmetic; it was a dam against the flood of losses, a statement that the season would not be surrendered. They remain 13th, still tethered to the lower rungs, but now with six points—half earned in draws—and a momentum they’ve struggled to manufacture.

For Atletico Madrid, the result stings. A second consecutive league match without victory, following their collapse against Barcelona and Champions League stumble, means the gap to the summit may widen. Still third, fourteen points from seven outings, their campaign now courts questions of nerve as much as talent. Champions League ambitions linger; so, too, does the sense that a steadying hand is needed to avoid another October unraveling.

The fixture has rarely favored Deportivo over the years—Atletico’s superiority in head-to-head meetings is well documented—but today the scripts blurred. On this day, effort and desire rewrote them.

Both clubs now face urgent futures. Deportivo, buoyed by result and belief, chase the consistency to escape danger—a sequence of tough fixtures looms, but possibilities have opened. Atletico, ever the contender yet now hunting answers, must rediscover their swagger before the pace-setters vanish from view.

In Riazor, there were no final heroes, no vanquished. Only two teams, battered by autumn and expectation, refusing to yield in a league where margins—like ambitions—are unforgivingly thin.