The China Mail - Atletico go third with comfortable win at Girona

Diego Simeone's side moved above Villarreal, fourth, who host leaders Barcelona later on.

A brilliant strike from distance from Koke, Conor Gallagher's deflected effort and a late third from Antoine Griezmann pulled Atletico within six points of Barca.

Atletico secured a fourth consecutive win across all competitions on a relatively simple afternoon at Girona's modest Montilivi stadium.

"I'm proud of the work we did today," Koke told Movistar.

"The team is taking a step forward and doing the things we need to do."

Marcos Llorente was a welcome return to the Atletico starting line-up after injury, and Simeone's team never looked likely to slip up against the team in 18th.

Koke opened the scoring with a vicious strike into the top corner when the ball fell for him outside the area, for his 50th Atletico goal.

"I don't shoot much, I'm more of an assist provider," admitted Koke.

"However when it sits up like that, I only thought about shooting and luckily it went in."

Girona almost equalised but for a spectacular save by Atletico's Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak, who managed to claw out an Axel Witsel effort.

The former Atletico player fired towards goal from seven yards out but Oblak showed lightning-quick reflexes to keep out the shot.

Former Chelsea midfielder Gallagher netted the second before the break at the end of a smooth Atletico move, with his shot clipping Vitor Reis to divert in at the near post.

Oblak made another important save to thwart Alex Moreno with around 15 minutes remaining to preserve Atletico's two-goal cushion.

Griezmann, on a now-frequent substitute appearance, wrapped up the win by stroking home late on for his second goal in his last two games.

D.Wang--ThChM