Atletico Madrid continued its good results and maintained its unbeaten record for the eighth stage in a row, by overwhelming its guest Seville 6-1, including a brace for Dutchman Memphis Depay and substitute Alvaro Morata, Saturday in the twenty-fourth stage of the Spanish Football League.
And with its fifth victory in this series, which began since losing at home to Barcelona, 0-1 on January 8, Atletico became third with 45 points, by a point against Real Sociedad, which tied Friday, in front of its guest, Cadiz, 0-0.
And the team of Argentine coach Diego Simeone is seven points away from his arch-rival Real Madrid II, with whom he drew 1-1 in the last stage, awaiting the royal club’s match with its Andalusian host Real Betis V.
This eleventh defeat of Seville, whose score is frozen at 25 points in fifteenth place, will increase the pressure on Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli.
Depay opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, following a counterattack and a pass from Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, then added the second after only three minutes, with a shot from outside the area, after a counterattack as well, and a pass from Marcus Llorente (26).
And the former Barcelona striker became the second player to score a double in his first match as a starter with Atletico in the twenty-first century, after Argentine Eduardo Salvio against Tenerife in April 2010, according to “Opta” statistics.
However, the Andalusian guest returned to the atmosphere of the meeting before the end of the first half through Moroccan Youssef Al-Nusairi after a pass from Senegalese Bab Guy (39), but Griezmann restored the difference to two goals at the beginning of the second half with a long shot after a pass from Koki (53), scoring his eighth goal in the league. This season and his 150th in the colors of Atlético in all competitions.
The Belgian Yannick Carrasco struck the guests with a fourth goal after a pass from substitute Pablo Barrios (69), then, after Croatian Ivan Rakitic missed a penalty kick for the guests (74), the other substitute added Morata the fifth before the Andalusian club was forced to complete the match with ten players after being sent off. Bab Guy received a second yellow card (80), which complicated his task further and allowed the former Italian Juventus striker to score his second personal goal (2 + 90).
Villarreal to sixth place
Villarreal remained at the heart of the struggle for the European positions, with its late victory at Almeria 2-0.
After a series of four defeats, Villarreal achieved its second victory and became temporarily sixth, three points behind Real Betis V.
And the “Yellow Submarine” team owes a victorious exit from the stadium of a team that has not lost against it since May 2010 to substitute Gerard Moreno, who paved the way by scoring the goal of progress in the 76th minute, after a pass from Nigerian Samuel Chukwuezi.
Chukwueze was also the owner of the pass for the decisive goal scored by Jose Morales in the 88th minute, confirming the thirteenth defeat of Almeria, whose balance was frozen at 25 points in the seventeenth place, one point behind the relegation zone.
Getafe won a valuable victory for the struggle to stay in the first division, and came at the expense of its guest, Girona, 3-2.
Coach Kiki Sanchez owes its second victory in the last three stages to the Turkish Enes Onal, who opened the scoring less than two minutes after the start of the match, then added the second in the 14th minute from a penalty kick, before his team finished the first half ahead with a third goal scored by Borja Mayoral (43). ).
Despite Girona’s efforts and success in narrowing the gap through Argentine Valentin Castellanos (54) and then Miguel Gutierrez (80), the return was not completed and the Catalan team suffered its tenth defeat of the season, freezing its score at 30 points in eleventh place.
As for Getafe, with its sixth victory of the season, it raised its tally to 25 points and left the relegation zone temporarily by rising to the sixteenth place.
The video assistant referee, “VR”, gave Elche his second victory only for the season, after the first he achieved on the fourth of February at the expense of Villarreal (3-1), by canceling the 1-1 equalizer for Real Mallorca in stoppage time.
The two teams seemed on their way to a goalless draw until Argentine Lucas Pouille managed to put Elche ahead of his host (88).
Mallorca believed that he had avoided falling at home and the seventh defeat of the season when he equalized in stoppage time through Bosnian Vedat Muriqui, but “VR” intervened and canceled the goal to give Elche his twelfth point, but he is still far from the safety zone, as he languishes in last place. 13 points behind the seventeenth place.