Atletico extend La Liga lead after Real slip at Elche
Atletico Madrid extended their lead at the top of La Liga on Wednesday after Luis Suarez fired them to a good 1-0 make an impression on Getafe while Real Madrid could only pull 1-1 at Elche.
Suarez struck found in the 20th minute with a exceptional header from Yannick Carrasco's cross to go Diego Simeone's Atletico up to 35 details, two before local rivals Madrid once they were pegged back again by a Fidel Chaves penalty following Luka Modric's early opener.
Real Sociedad, Sevilla and Villarreal are an additional seven points rear, with Barcelona 10 in back of Atletico in sixth following their 1-1 draw with Eibar in Tuesday.
Atletico also have played two fewer suits than reigning champions Madrid after a good scrappy win emblematic of Simeone's reign on his 500th match as club trainer.
"When I got on the plane to arrive here I thought that whenever I left the club (seeing that a player) that I always wished to keep coming back," said Simeone, who's found in his 10th year as Atletico coach.
"I found guys (Koke, Saul Niguez) who wished to get the golf club out of your bad patch it had been in, and I have a relationship with them that runs beyond football."
Uruguay frontward Suarez's eighth objective of the growing season was a good since it got for Atletico, who despite fielding a strong line-up didn't impress in a match of little incident at the Wanda Metropolitano.
However Atletico's third directly win keeps them top of the pile after a fraught last couple of days where Diego Costa was permitted to keep and Kieran Trippier was banned before end of February for betting breaches.
- 'Two points dropped' -
Zinedine Zidane's Madrid knew that whatever happened on the later fixture they would trail Atletico entering the new year, nonetheless they looked on course for a routine win at struggling Elche when Modric opened up the scoring on the 20th minute.
Croatian Modric pounced to put a perfect header in the most notable corner just after Marco Asensio's longe range shot thumped back away away the bar, the next period Madrid had hit the woodwork on the early minutes.
The apart side thought that they had a penalty nine a few minutes prior to the break when referee Jorge Figueroa Vazquez pointed to the location for what he thought was an Ivan Marcone handball, but the awarding was cancelled carrying out a VAR check.
Elche then got a spot-kick of their own 5 minutes into the second half when Dani Carvajal was caught tearing at Antonio Barragan's shirt, with Fidel upgrading to stroke residence the leveller.
Lucas Boye then hit the content for the hosts before residence keeper Edgar Badia made two exceptional stops deny Carvajal and Sergio Ramos while Madrid pushed for a win that would have kept them level on tips with their capital town rivals.
"When I look at how exactly we enjoyed in the first half, I tell myself it's two tips dropped," said Zidane.
"Plenty of groups will drop items. It's a difficult season, and we still have plenty of matches left."
- Granada in Euro hunt -
Previous Granada moved to within several tips of the Champions Group locations after beating Valencia 2-1 in a good feisty match where three players were sent off found in six second-half minutes.
Jorge Molina's powerful header two minutes from period keeps Granada found in seventh put on 24 points, several behind fourth-placed Sevilla, Sociedad and Villarreal.
Valencia's seventh group defeat of the growing season leaves them level on 15 points with Real Valladolid, who are third-from-bottom in the relegation zone.
Javi Gracia's part haven't won a La Liga meet in their previous seven attempts and had their activity manufactured harder when Jason and Goncalo Guedes were sent off within 3 minutes of one another midway through the next half.
Granada's Domingos Duarte was then demonstrated a straight red card three minutes later after he cynically hacked straight down Manu Vallejo as he attemptedto burst through on target with the scores still level.
Molina punished the beleaguered away side by thumping house Alberto Soro's cross.
