BARCELONA: Antoine Griezmann pulled the strings for Atletico Madrid as they shredded Ruben Baraja’s helpless Valencia 3-0 in La Liga on Saturday.

The French forward opened the scoring for the hosts at the Metropolitano and continued his own superb form with another fine display at the heart of Diego Simeone’s side.

Yannick Carrasco doubled Atletico’s lead early in the second half and Thomas Lemar sealed the win, with the Rojiblancos, third, moving six points clear of fourth-placed Real Sociedad, having played a game more.

Atletico recorded a fifth win in six La Liga games and tightened their hold on third place with a confident display, the kind they could not find in the first half of the campaign.

“Before the World Cup nothing was going for us, and now everything is,” Atletico midfielder Marcos Llorente told DAZN. “The team is happy, and looking forward to keep on winning games, and the objective is to finish as high as we can.”

Memphis Depay missed two good chances for Atletico early on before Griezmann broke the deadlock after 23 minutes.

Llorente burst forward and fed the striker, and while there was a stroke of luck about his first touch, which appeared to bounce off his foot and set the ball up nicely, the second was a neat finish for his ninth league goal of the season.

The first half was intense and fairly even, but Atletico strolled to victory in the second after Carrasco tucked home from close range soon after the break.

Griezmann threaded a fine pass through for Alvaro Morata, who left Valencia defender Eray Comert in the dust and crossed for Lemar to head home.

Earlier, Rayo Vallecano were held to a 2-2 draw by Girona after missing a penalty which Oscar Trejo attempted to pass to Isi Palazon.

Trejo saw a first spot-kick saved by Paulo Gazzaniga, but was allowed to take it again for encroachment by Girona.

On his second attempt he laid the ball off to the onrushing Palazon, who fired over.

The draw leaves Rayo provisionally eighth while Girona sit 12th.

Celta Vigo won 3-1 at Espanyol with talented midfielder Gabri Veiga scoring a fine goal to continue his good form.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2023