LA LIGA: ATLETICO EXTEND LEAD

Atletico Madrid have extended their lead at the Spanish La Liga summit and this is not good news for city rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona, who are the other two contenders for the league title in the top flight of club football in Spain. Real Madrid fans and Barcelona fans would have been elated when Atletico Madrid went behind in their outstanding game, an home clash with Athletic Bilbao. The Spanish La Liga leaders had to overcome the adversity of going behind to their visitors to beat the team from Basque at home and extend their lead at the La Liga summit. Atletico Madrid had a three-point lead over Barcelona in second place and a five-point lead over Real Madrid in third place ahead of the outstanding game with Bilbao. In the end, Atletico were able to extend their lead over Barcelona and Real Madrid to six points and eight points respectively after the 2-1 win over Bilbao. As pointed out earlier, Atletico Madrid had to come from behind to beat the Basque team.

Bilbao took the lead through Spanish player Iker Munian after the petite attacker combined with striker and compatriot Inaki Williams. The goal came around the halfway mark of the first half and it stunned Atletico as they failed to recover quickly from the setback. The hosts didn’t fight back until in-form Spanish midfielder Marcos Llorente scored in added time of the first half off the assist from French international winger Thomas Lemar. The goal took Llorente to an impressive nine goals in the league this season in addition to eight assists. He has been involved in all the 26 league games this season. Atletico added a second goal after the break as they were awarded a penalty. Leading goalscorer Luis Suarez was brought down by Athletic centre back Unai Nunez. Suarez converted the said penalty on 51 minutes to edge his team ahead. Suarez has 18 league goals this season. Atletico were able to hold on to the advantage for the remainder of the match to seal a six-point lead at the top of La Liga standings.