Atletico keep the faith

Torres breaks the deadlock

With plenty of injuries going into the game against Betis, the Liga BBVA's best defence fielded academy graduates Lucas Hernandez and Nacho Monsalve in an unprecedented centre-back partnership. It was an evenly-matched affair early in the game with few chances for either side. Atletico struggled to threaten going forward, but slowly but surely began to take control of the game and creep ever closer to Antonio Adan's goal. In the first clear chance of the match, the Betis keeper was called into action to save Antoine Griezmann's effort. The rebound fell to Koke, but the midfielder sent his shot clattering off the crossbar. However, there was little the visitors' keeper could do to keep out Torres' spectacular 37th-minute chip from Koke's pinpoint through ball. 

Griezmann strikes again

The goal spurred Atletico on in search of a second goal and they did not have to wait long for their reward. Torres' cross into the area found Griezmann. The Frenchman controlled the ball well and produced a forward pass which Adan failed to clear as the ball somehow found its way across the line. Despite Atletico's dominance and his stroke of bad luck, Adan recovered well to pull off two world-class saves before half time to keep his team in the game. 

Game over

The home side continued to dominate proceedings after the break, although Betis came close to pulling a goal back with two chances that brought impressive saves from Jan Oblak. Atletico reacted well to wrestle back control of the ball and carve out a third goal. Juanfran joined the attack, and ran onto Angel Correa's cross into the area, to impressively slot away his first goal of the season.

Exciting to the end

Betis pulled a goal back through Ruben Castro on 79 minutes following a poor clearance from Oblak, but any hopes the visitors had of staging a comeback disappeared when Correa set up Griezmann to make it 4-1. It was the Frenchman's 19th La Liga goal of the campaign. Despite their convincing lead, Atletico did not let up and still found time to score a fifth goal in time added on. Griezmann broke down the left and squared the ball for substitute Thomas Teye to round out the scoring at 5-1.   

Simeone keeps the faith

The win keeps Atletico hot on the heels of league leaders FC Barcelona. With seven games still to play before the end of the campaign, Simeone remains hopeful that he can lead his team to another league title.