Griezmann double fires Atletico top of La Liga
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Atletico Madrid moved to the top of La Liga as Antoine Griezmann's double handed them a 2-0 win over Getafe on Tuesday.
Griezmann got the hosts off to the perfect start after five minutes and then sealed the three points despite an otherwise unconvincing Atletico display from Jackson Martinez's stoppage time pass.
Victory takes Atletico top on goal difference from champions Barcelona. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid are in action on Wednesday when they travel to Celta Vigo and Athletic Bilbao respectively.
"The early goal put us on the road to victory," said Atletico boss Diego Simeone. "We played well for the first 10 minutes and improved a lot in the last 20 minutes.
"In between we couldn't create the chances to kill the game and allowed them to have good opportunities, particularly one just before and after half-time."
Simeone made six changes to the Atletico side that won 2-0 at Eibar on Saturday and the hosts got off to a flying start. A corner was only cleared as far as Gabi on the edge of the area and his ball back into the danger zone was expertly controlled and finished by Griezmann.
Yannick Ferreira Carrasco was one of those given his chance to impress and the Belgian fired just wide as Atletico continued to push forward. Yet, it was Getafe who ended the half the stronger as Jan Oblak had to get down well to divert on-loan Celtic striker Stefan Scepovic's drive to safety. The visitors had an even better chance to level on the hour mark when Pedro Leon fired wide with just Oblak to beat.
Simeone responded by introducing Martinez for the ineffectual Fernando Torres. And despite again failing to get on the scoresheet, the Colombian unselfishly teed up Griezmann to fire home his fifth goal of the season.
Espanyol, Sociedad in winner's circle
Elsewhere, Valencia's poor start to the campaign continued as Victor Alvarez's first-half goal was enough to give Espanyol a 1-0 win. Los Che have managed just five points from their opening five games and coach Nuno Espirito Santo was subjected to calls for his resignation by fans during Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to Real Betis.
However, the pressure on former Manchester United manager David Moyes was eased as his Real Sociedad side claimed their first victory of the season, 3-0 at Granada, thanks to an Imanol Agirretxe hat-trick.