Alexander Sorloth’s double helped Atletico Madrid come from behind to beat Leganes 3-1 in La Liga on Sunday. Diego Simeone’s team struggled against the minnows from the south of Madrid but after Yvan Neyou blasted the visitors ahead Sorloth levelled with a fine finish and Antoine Griezmann slid home the second. Norwegian target man Sorloth wrapped up the victory late in stoppage time with a poacher’s finish. Victory took Atletico third, cutting the gap on leaders Barcelona to four points before the Catalans host Sevilla later Sunday.
“In the second half we improved a bit, above all in speeding up the game,” Simeone told Movistar.
Atletico came into the game with just one victory in their last five matches across all competitions.
They shared 1-1 draws with Rayo Vallecano, rivals Real Madrid and Real Sociedad, as well as suffering a 4-0 thrashing at Benfica in the Champions League.
No supporters filled the lower part of the Metropolitano stadium’s south stand, closed by the Spanish football federation after some Atletico fans threw objects at Real Madrid players during the derby in September.
Leganes took a deserved first half lead when Neyou hammered into the top corner past the helpless Jan Oblak.
Simeone took action in the second half with a slate of changes, including replacing Rodrigo Riquelme with his son Giuliano Simeone.
The 21-year-old midfielder played his part in Atletico’s triumph, after Sorloth’s clever flicked finish from Axel Witsel’s cut-back helped the hosts pull level in the 69th minute.
Giuliano did brilliantly to keep the ball in on the right flank and his cross to the near post was turned home by Griezmann, sliding in before goalkeeper Marko Dmitrovic.
“In these weeks I’ve been working a lot in this position (on the right) and I’m really happy with my performance and assist for Griezmann,” Giuliano told Movistar.
“But (the win was) about the attitude of the whole team in the second half, we knew we had to improve.”
Griezmann was later shown a red card for a high tackle on Neyou, but the referee downgraded it to a yellow after a VAR review showed the former France international had slipped.
Giuliano survived a late Leganes appeal for a penalty when he tangled with Munir El Haddadi, who fell under his challenge in Atletico’s area.
Sorloth confirmed the Rojiblancos’ win with a close range finish late on for his third league goal since joining this summer from Villarreal.
“We did good work and didn’t get the reward for it, so it hurts,” said Neyou, with Leganes sitting 17th.
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