Atletico Madrid jumped to the top of La Liga on Saturday with a 4-0 thrashing of Cadiz after Lionel Messi came on at half-time to rescue Ba...
Atletico Madrid jumped to the top of La Liga on Saturday with a 4-0 thrashing of Cadiz after Lionel Messi came on at half-time to rescue Barcelona against Real Betis.
Atletico claimed first place, ahead of Real Sociedad on goal difference, with the excellent Joao Felix scoring twice in another impressive victory for Diego Simeone’s side.
Luis Suarez and Marcos Llorente were also on target as Atletico made it five wins and two draws from their opening seven games and underlined their status as genuine title contenders.
They have scored 17 goals and conceded just two in that time.
After the international break, Atleti play at home to Barcelona, when Suarez and Antoine Griezmann will be up against their former clubs.
But while Suarez has enjoyed a superb start for Atletico, scoring five goals already, Griezmann continues to struggle in the shadow of Messi at Camp Nou.
Messi had been rested by Ronald Koeman but was thrown on with the game in the balance after Griezmann missed a penalty, before Betis’ Antonio Sanabria cancelled out Ousmane Dembele’s opener.
Within four minutes of his introduction, Messi gave Griezmann an open goal with a superb dummy and then scored twice himself, the first a penalty that saw Betis’ Aissa Mandi sent off for a handball on the line.
In between,...
