Simeone equals Aragonés's La Liga wins record as Atlético's seventh straight victory stuns Levante

Diego Simeone equalled Luis Aragonés’s record for La Liga wins as an Atlético Madrid coach after his side defeated Levante 2-0 in Valencia on Saturday, a seventh straight league victory that briefly sent Atlético to the summit of the table.

It took the Argentine 565 La Liga matches in charge to reach the milestone, according to Club Atlético de Madrid. A win over Barcelona in matchday 12 — the sides meet on Sunday 8 November at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano — would give Simeone the record outright.

The scoreline flattered the visitors. Levante attempted 14 shots from inside the box to Atlético’s three, and the hosts’ expected goals figure of 1.33 dwarfed Atlético’s 0.63. Jan Oblak was the decisive factor, producing a crucial one-handed save to deny Dani Requena around the tenth minute and finishing with a match rating of 8.08.

Morten Hjulmand had a goal ruled out by VAR in the 17th minute, and Levante coach Luís Castro was booked for dissent a minute later. Atlético went into half-time a goal ahead, and Álex Baena supplied the assist for their second before being substituted. Simeone made two double changes: Jonathan David and Alexander Sørloth replaced Lee Kang-In and Julián Álvarez in the 67th minute, with Le Normand and Lookman coming on for Barrios and Baena nine minutes later.

Across all official competitions with Atlético, Simeone now holds 479 wins from 813 games. Aragonés managed 308 wins from 612 games at the club. Simeone is also credited with eight trophies as coach, two more than Aragonés’s six.

From 11 league games, Atlético have nine wins, one draw and one defeat. Real Madrid sit third on 24 points from 10 games. Levante, beaten for the second game in succession, drop to 17th on 10 points.

Before the Barcelona fixture, Atlético host Bayern München in the Champions League on Tuesday 3 November.