Atlético cruise to win ahead of Barça clash

Atlético cruise to win ahead of Barça clash

Diego Simeone’s side put five past previously unbeaten Sporting to move within a point of Barça in the La Liga table

Atlético Madrid brushed aside the challenge of unbeaten Sporting Gijón on Saturday with two goals from in form Antoine Griezmann, two from Fernando Torres and one from new signing Kevin Gameiro giving them a morale boosting 5-0 league win just four days before their visit to Camp Nou to take on Barça in La Liga. Sporting, meanwhile, is the team Barça will be facing the Saturday after.

Los colchoneros were 2-0 up after just five minutes agains. Frenchman Griezmann scored the first after just 90 seconds with Gameiro adding another just minutes later. A Sporting team coached by former blaugrana ‘Pitu’ Abelardo never recovered from that early double blow with Griezmann adding his second and Atlético’s third just after the half hour mark.

In the second half Fernando Torres came on to round off the victory with a brace, his second coming from the penalty spot in injury time.

Atlético are fourth in the table after the weekend’s result, with the same eight points as Sevilla and Villarreal. Real Madrid stay top after maintaining their 100 per cent record with a 2-0 win at Espanyol with goals from James and Benzema.

A Momo goal after nine minutes was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Las Palmas. That leaves the Canary Islanders matched on nine points with second placed Barcelona, three adrift of the leaders. But Barça’s five goals against Leganés means that it is they who now have the superior goal difference.

You can view the complete league table after four games here.

Manchester City rolling along nicely 

Manchester City continued their excellent form under new coach Pep Guardiola with a comfortable 4-0 home win over Bournemouth in the Premier League. Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring with an opportunist’s free kick and Iheanacho added a second ten minutes later after a lightning counter attack. In the second half Raheem Sterling and Ilkay Gundogan rounded off the win in which the only negative was a late red card for former Barça man Nolito

Borussia Mönchengladbach bounced back from last week's loss at Freiburg with a comprehensive 4-1 victory against Werder Bremen. Strike partners Thorgan Hazard and Raffael each scored a brace in the first half, before Serge Gnabry grabbed a consolation in the second period.

Celtic, however, suffered another setback at the hands of a team wearing red and blue jerseys for the second time this week. They twice took the lead against bottom club Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Sunday, first through Rogic and second through Sinclair, but the Highlanders cancelled out both goals (the second with just one minute of the game left) to secure a 2-2 win and take the first points off the Celts in the current Scottish league campaign.

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