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Sport

06th Jan 2018

Diego Costa marks La Liga return with a goal and a red card

Never change, Diego

Reuben Pinder

It’s good to see him back in action.

After months of itching to get back to playing in the red and white of his beloved Atletico Madrid, Diego Costa finally made his first league appearance of the season today, starting up front with Antoine Griezmann against Getafe.

He caused the Getafe defence a lot of problems as you’d expect, but also caused problems for himself.

Shortly after picking up an unnecessary yellow card for a petulant elbow on a Getafe defender while still in control of the ball, Costa doubled Atletico’s lead in the 68th minute, adding to Angel Correa’s 18th minute goal.

Understandably elated to have hit the ground running at the Wanda Metropolitano, Costa ran straight to the fans to celebrate. His teammates tried to advise him against doing so, but he wasn’t having any of it.

Of course, the laws of the game unfortunately state that players are not permitted to celebrate with the fans, and the referee was left no option but to give Costa a second yellow card, and send him for an early bath.

https://twitter.com/KoyluY/status/949633967363428352

It’s one of football’s more controversial laws, which can spoil heat of the moment celebrations, as we saw in the Premier League when Raheem Sterling was given a second yellow card in Manchester City’s match vs Bournemouth for celebrating his 96th minute winner with the fans. Although in that case, the fans spilled over onto the pitch.

Still, Costa knows the rules. Never change, Diego.