Atletico Madrid returned to the summit of LaLiga as Luis Suarez’s dramatic 90th-minute goal sealed a 2-1 win over Deportivo Alaves on Sunday.
Diego Simeone’s side dropped to second following Real Madrid’s 2-0 win over Celta Vigo on Saturday, but a fourth consecutive top-flight victory restored a two-point advantage over their city rivals with still two games in hand.
Marcos Llorente put the visitors ahead after 41 minutes with his latest long-range effort — his five from outside the penalty area since the beginning of 2020 more than any other LaLiga player.
Alaves brushed off Victor Laguardia’s 63rd-minute red card to pull level six minutes from time through Felipe’s outrageous own goal, but Suarez popped up at the death to snatch a memorable win for Los Rojiblancos.
On Saturday night, Real Madrid jumped to the top with a 2-0 home victory over in-form Celta Vigo.
Lucas Vazquez headed in a cross from Marco Asensio at the far post in the sixth minute, barely a minute after Real centre back Nacho had cleared a shot by Celta striker Iago Aspas off the line.
Vazquez returned the favour in the 53rd minute, laying a diagonal ball into the path of Asensio with the visiting defence in disarray. Asensio drove his shot into the roof of the net.
It was Celta's first loss since Eduardo Coudet took over as manager on November 12, ending a run of seven games unbeaten that had lifted them from the relegation zone to eighth in the table.
With Real Madrid in control, coach Zinedine Zidane took off Asensio, Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal, Toni Kroos and, right at the end, captain Karim Benzema and brought on Eden Hazard and Fede Valverde, who are returning from injuries, and youngsters Martin Odegaard and Vinicius Junior.