Atletico Madrid sealed a confident 2-0 win over Valencia at the Mestalla, with academy graduates Iker Luque and Cubo scoring on their debuts.

Keeping Atletico’s upcoming Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal in mind, Diego Simeone made wholesale changes, naming a side that did not feature any of the starters from the first leg.

After a cagey start, Nahuel Molina nearly scored a stunner from just in front of the centre circle, drilling a powerful dipping effort past Stole Dimitrievski and straight onto the crossbar.

Valencia struggled to progress the ball into Atletico’s final third from there, despite having more possession in what turned into a very stop-start affair.

Rayane Belaid twice failed to find the target after being teed up by Molina, while Jose Gaya sent a header high and wide off Javi Guerra’s corner at the other end moments later.

Atletico left it late but eventually broke the deadlock in the 74th minute as 20-year-old Luque lasered a smart effort past Dimitrievski at the near post just 10 minutes after being introduced off the bench.

Fellow substitute 18-year-old Cubo then emphatically sealed the result eight minutes later, neatly collecting Antoine Griezmann’s clever throughball before firing low into the near post, with the goal awarded following a VAR review.

Taking all three points back to Madrid pic.twitter.com/4CGvyjV23p

— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) May 2, 2026

Data Debrief: Atletico Madrileno starlets shine on debut

While it was hardly a secret that Simeone would opt to rest some of his first-teamers ahead of a crucial Champions League clash, even he would not have expected his academy graduates to perform so strongly.

Indeed, Luque and Cubo’s goals extended Atletico’s scoring run in LaLiga to 10 games – their longest streak since a run of 17 from May to December 2025.

Simeone’s side were full value for the win in the end, producing 1.78 expected goals (xG) from their 20 shots (five on target).

Despite producing 1.11 xG of their own from 12 shots, Valencia failed to hit the target for the first time in a LaLiga game since facing Real Madrid in February.