Atletico Madrid move up third in La Liga

MADRID: Atletico Madrid thrashed Sevilla 6-1 to move into third place in La Liga above Real Sociedad on Saturday night.

The game saw Diego Simeone overtake Luis Aragones as the coach who has sat in the Atletico dugout for most matches in the club’s history and the players gave the Argentinean an appropriate homage in his 613th match.

Memphis Depay scored twice in the 23rd and 26th minute to put Atletico 2-0 up, before Youssef En-Nesyri gave Sevilla hope in the 39th minute, a Xinhua report said.

Those hopes were quickly banished as Antoine Griezmann netted Atletico’s third in the 53rd minute, before Yannick Carrasco added a fourth in the 69th minute.

Substitute Alvaro Morata then rounded off the route with goals in the 76th and 92nd minute to once again leave Sevilla deep in a battle against relegation.

Real Sociedad were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Cadiz on Friday night in a match where the visitors produced a solid defensive display to frustrate the home side, who have failed to win any of their last three matches.

Villarreal brought Almeria back down to earth following last weekend’s 1-0 win at home to Barcelona, with Gerard Moreno and Jose Luis Morales both scoring in the second half to give Quique Setien’s side three vital points and leave Almeria on the verge of the relegation zone.

Getafe produced a magnificent first half to lead Girona 3-0 with two goals from Enes Unal and one from Borja Mayoral. However, they were on the back foot after the break after goals from Valentin Castellanos and Miguel Gutierrez, but managed to cling on for a 3-2 win that lifted them out of the bottom three.

Lucas Boye’s 88th minute goal for Elche stunned Mallorca and gave bottom of the table Elche their second win of the season. Mallorca thought they had leveled in the 95th minute through Vedat Muriqi, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR review.

The defeat ended a run of five consecutive home wins of Mallorca, while Elche are still rooted to the bottom of the table. IANS