Atletico Madrid reinforced their hold in third place in Laliga while on Thursday they drove to a 3-0 home victory on Rayo Vallecano.
Match report
With their title, everything except after a 1-0 loss in Las Palmas, Diego Simeone's side bounced back to move to 66 points, six free of the fourth placed athletic Bilbao.
Alexander Sorloth only opened the score for three minutes, on the way to the cross of Giuliano Simeone on the distant pole.
The Norwegian then almost doubled his count five minutes later when one-on-one with Augusto Batalla, but the goalkeeper made himself great to push it wide.
Conor Gallagher then rose the highest to nod in a Pinpoint delivery by Rodrigo de Paul and to double their lead on peace.
Vallecano tried to set up a comeback after the break, with Isi Palazon above his defender to pound a header with the goal, but a mixture of the bar and Jan Oblak kept it out of the goal.
But Julian Alvarez sealed the victory in the 77th minute. Antoine Griezmann made an impact of the couch and moved it to the Argentinian to close Batalla.
The defeat leaves Rayo 11th with 41 points, five removed from European places.
Three goals and three points at home! pic.twitter.com/m92xilc9bb
– Atlético de Madrid (@atleti Glish) April 24, 2025
Data Debrief: Atletico Search Magic Derby Touch
Atletico had not succeeded in winning their last three LaLiga -Derbies on their way to this competition (D1 L2), but they stopped that rot with a clinical achievement in the Metropolitano.
They are now also unbeaten in their last 16 league matches against Vallecano (W13 D3), a run that extends until February 2013.
It started with Sorloth; Only Vinicius Junior has scored more goals against a single opponent (nine against Valencia) than the 29-year-old against Vallecano since Sorloth arrived in the competition in 2021-22 (seven).
And Alvarez continued his beautiful debut season with Atletico, achieving his 15th goal. Only four players (Radamel Falcao, Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan) scored more in their first campaign in the club.
Match -Events
0 'The game is about to start!
3 'goal! Atletico 1-0 Vallecano (Alexander Sørloth)
9 'Highlight of Atletico vs Vallecano
27 'Highlight of Atletico vs Vallecano
30 'Match event for Atletico vs Vallecano
36 'Highlight of Atletico vs Vallecano
45 'goal! Atletico 2-0 Vallecano (Conor Gallagher)
61 'Match event for Atletico vs Vallecano
63 'Match event for Atletico vs Vallecano
66 'Highlight of Atletico vs Vallecano
77 'goal! Atletico 3-0 Vallecano (Julián Alvarez)
79 'Match event for Atletico vs Vallecano
90 'Highlight of Atletico vs Vallecano
Line-ups
Atletico XI: Oblak, Lenglet, Sørloth, De Paul, Llorente, Le Normand, Galan, Gallagher, Alvarez, Giuliano Simeone, Barrios, Barrios
Subs: Witsel, Azpilicueta, Griezmann, Koke, Lemar, Musso, Gimenez, Correa, Mandava, Molina, Lino, Riquelme
Vallecano XI: Lejeune, Unai López, Álvaro García, Augusto Batalla, Alfonso Espino, óscar Valentín, Isi Palazón, Pedro Díaz, Pathé Ciss, Andrei Rațiu, Randy Nteka
Subs: Oscar Trejo, Aridane Hernández, Sergi Guardiola, Raúl de Tomás, Balliu, Gumbau, Adrián Embarba, Dani Cárdenas, Jorge de Frutos, Pep Chavarría, Pelayo Fernández, Marco de Lasas