Joao Felix and Luis Suarez combined to devastating effect as Atletico Madrid came from behind to beat Valencia 3-1 at home on Sunday to continue its relentless pursuit of the LaLiga title.
Valencia took a shock lead in the 11th minute with an unstoppable long-range strike from Serbian midfielder Uros Racic but the league leader responded in the 23rd when Felix stuck out a foot to prod home from a corner.
The Portuguese forward then latched on to a through ball to launch a quick counter attack early in the second half and released Suarez, who took a couple of touches before striking in off the far post from a tight angle.
The Uruguayan, who was celebrating his 34th birthday, moved joint-top of LaLiga’s goalscoring charts alongside Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri, with 12 strikes from 15 games since being forced out of Barcelona last year.
Substitute Angel Correa then finished off a fine move from Marcos Llorente in the 72nd minute to clinch a seventh league win in a row for Diego Simeone’s side.
Atletico leads the standings with 47 points from 18 games. Valencia is 14th on 20 points.
The results: LaLiga: Osasuna 3 (Budimir 27, 39, Moncayola 86) bt Granada 1 (Suarez 50); Elche 0 lost to Barcelona 2 (De Jong 39, Puig 89); Celta Vigo 1 (Mendez 9) drew with Eibar 1 (Gil 54); Atletico Madrid 3 (Felix 23, Suarez 54, Correa 72) bt Valencia 1 (Racic 11).
Serie A: Lazio 2 (Milinkovic-Savic 25, Immobile 71) bt Sassuolo 1 (Caputo 6); Parma 0 lost to Sampdoria 2 (Yoshida 25, Keita 34).