Spanish La Liga: Falcao hat-trick seals win for Atletico Madrid

Alexia Krause January 22, 2012 0

Spanish La Liga: Falcao hat-trick seals win for Atletico Madrid

BARCELONA: Atletico Madrid continued their winning run under new coach Diego Simeone on Saturday when they recorded their first away victory in the Spanish La Liga by defeating Real Sociedad 4-0.

The victory was a result of sheer class of Radamel Falcao who struck the hat-trick that proved a little too bigger deficit to cover for Real Sociedad.

Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid took an early lead in the third minute with a goal from spot kick by Falcao and with it Vadim Demidov got booked for a handball inside the business area.

As the rain continued pouring down, it became a hard job for the players to keep possession of the ball and Real Sociedad found it tough to bounce back from the early dent. Their best effort of first half came in the dying moments when Carlos Vela’s shot found a defender who cleared the shot.

Early in the second half, Adrian Lopez made full use of the rebound of his header off Claudio Bravo to double the lead in the 47^th minutes as going got tougher for the home side.

Atletico Madrid then resorted to keep possession of the ball and while Real Sociedad tried eliminating the deficit, Falcao, who now has 14 goals for Atletico Madrid, got the perfect chance of scoring two more goals. His next goal came in the 83^rd minute when his chip shot landed in the net and then he scored last goal of the evening in the stoppage time.

It is important to mention here that this is the first loss in eight league fixtures for the Real Sociedad.

In another match, Espanyol defeated Granada 3-0 at home with goals coming from Raul Baena in 26^th minute, Joan Verdu on a penalty kick just ahead of the halftime, and substitute Rui Fonte in 80^th minute.

Espanyol, who have won five games on the trot, are now on fifth place in the La Liga standings.

La Liga leaders Real Madrid will host Atheltic Bilbao on Sunday (tonight) and second-place FC Barcelona will pay visit to Malaga. In other matches, Osasuna will play Valencia, Roya Vallecano are up against Mallorca, and Levante will face off against Zaragoza.