Atletico Madrid beat Valencia to widen La Liga lead

Image Source : GETTY IMAGES Atletico Madrid’s Luis Suarez (second from left) celebrates with teammates (left-to-right) Joao Felix, Marcos Llorente, Yannick Ferreira Carrasco and Thomas Lemar after scoring their staff’s second objective in Madrid on Sunday evening.
Atletico Madrid hasn’t flinched of their quest to win the Spanish league title for the primary time since 2014.
Coming from behind for a second straight time, Atlético defeated Valencia 3-1 on Sunday to strengthen its maintain on the league lead getting into the second half of the season.
Barcelona earlier picked up its second win in a row with out the suspended Lionel Messi, defeating Elche 2-0 to regain third place.
João Félix, Luis Suárez and Ángel Correa scored to provide Atlético its seventh straight league win and a seven-point hole to second-place Real Madrid with a recreation in hand. Diego Simeone’s staff is 10 factors forward of Barcelona.
Atlético had additionally wanted to rally to win its earlier league match, towards Eibar.
“We started behind again but this team always fights until the end and thankfully we ended with the victory,” Félix stated. “We can’t get too caught up with the lead that we have now. We have to stayed focused match after match.”
Valencia opened the scoring with a good looking curling long-range shot by Uros Racic within the eleventh minute, however Félix equalized off a nook kick within the twenty third and Suárez put the hosts forward with a well-placed low shot into the far nook within the 54th from a Félix go. Correa sealed the victory by finishing a cross from Marcos Llorente within the 72nd.
Suárez, who netted a late winner towards Eibar final weekend, is now one of many league’s main scorers with 12 targets, together with Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri.
Valencia, which was unbeaten in 5 matches in all competitions, stayed in 14th place. It has the identical 20 factors as Alavés, the primary staff contained in the relegation zone after 20 matches.
Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby had to get replaced early within the second half due to an obvious muscle harm.
BARCELONA ON A ROLL
Frenkie de Jong scored within the thirty ninth and arrange Riqui Puig’s 89th-minute objective to provide Barcelona its fourth league win in a row as Messi served the second of his two-game suspension for hitting an opponent.
The Catalan membership moved some extent in entrance of Sevilla, which on Saturday beat Cádiz 3-0.

It was the primary time Barcelona received 4 consecutive league matches this season, with all 4 victories coming in away matches. It hasn’t misplaced in 9 straight league video games.
“We’ve improved since the year started,” De Jong stated. “We’ve only played away games in the league and won all of them. We are doing better.”
De Jong scored into the open web after the Elche protection failed to completely clear a cross from Martin Braithwaite to Antoine Griezmann inside the world. The Dutch midfielder made a well-placed cross for Puig’s late header for his first-ever Spanish league objective.
Marc-André Ter Stegen made a vital foot-save to maintain Barcelona forward within the 56th after Elche ahead Emiliano Rigoni entered the world in a one-on-one state of affairs. The breakaway for the hosts was prompted after a blunder by Barcelona defender Óscar Mingueza, who gave the ball away close to midfield.
“It’s one of those plays that can make the difference in the match,” Elche defender Gonzalo Verdú stated. “The goalkeeper made a tremendous save. A goal there could have changed the match.”
Barcelona was coming off a 2-0 win over third-division membership Cornellà within the spherical of 32 of the Copa del Rey on Thursday, when Messi served the primary match of his suspension for hitting an opponent within the staff’s 3-2 loss to Athletic Bilbao within the Spanish Super Cup remaining on Jan. 17.
Elche, winless in its final 13 league video games, was second-to-last within the 20-team standings.
CELTA HELD
Celta Vigo was held 1-1 towards Eibar to increase its winless streak to 5 matches in all competitions. It had misplaced 4 straight, together with towards third-division membership Ibiza within the second spherical of the Copa del Rey. Its final league win was in December.
Celta sits in ninth-place, whereas Eibar stayed fifteenth, not removed from the relegation zone.
OSASUNA WINS
Osasuna snapped its personal 13-game winless streak with a 3-1 victory over Granada.
Ante Budimir scored a pair of first-half targets for the hosts, who hadn’t received within the league since October.
The win moved Osasuna out of the relegation zone, whereas Granada stayed in seventh place.