MADRID: Atletico Madrid took advantage of Real Madrid’s late kick-off against Barcelona yesterday to move to the top of La Liga with a 2-0 win over bottom-placed Real Betis.
After a tight opening 55 minutes, the game swung in the visitors favour when Braian Rodriguez was sent-off for a second bookable offence.
Two minutes later Gabi put Atletico in front with a fine strike from 25 yards before Diego Costa sealed the three points with his 31st goal of the season.
Atletico lead Real thanks to their better head-to-head record with both sides from the capital locked on 70 points, whilst Barca are four points further back in third.
Betis had suffered a physically sapping and demoralising defeat to local rivals Sevilla on penalties in the Europa League on Thursday.
However, they restricted Atletico to relatively few opportunities in the first-half, although Costa did have a goal wrongly ruled out for offside midway through the half.
Betis could even have gone in front just two minutes into the second-half when Juan Carlos’ low effort beat Thibaut Courtois but came back off the outside of the post.
Rodriguez was then given his marching orders after being shown a second yellow card for deliberate handball.
AFP
