Alexander Sørloth he came off the bench and scored with a header at the end of the second half Atlético Madrid after a hard-fought 1-0 victory Getafe on Sunday in LaLiga they achieved their 11th consecutive triumph in all competitions.
Atlético equalized Barcelona top of the LaLiga table with 38 points from 17 matches, overtaking it Real Madrid who are third with 37. Barcelona will host weak Leganes on Sunday.
Atlético, which had won all its matches since late October, had to dig deep to break the deadlock, with the winner emerging after two substitutes intervened in the 69th minute.
Full defender Nahuel Molina he delivered a long cross from the right wing, which found the unmarked Sørloth, whose header beat the goalkeeper at the far post David Soria.
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After constantly changing his squad and trying out different lineups over the first few months of the season, Atlético manager Diego Simeone seems to have finally found a lineup he feels most comfortable with.
He sent 11 players and they defeated him easily Slavic Bratislava 3-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday with Antoine Griezmann AND Julian Alvarez in attack and two four-man lines in midfield and defense instead of the conservative five-man defense line he has been known for for over a decade in Madrid.
The hosts dominated from the beginning thanks to the winger Samuel Lino wasting several great opportunities to open the scoring in the 12th and 15th minutes, hitting just wide with close-range volleys following crosses from Griezmann and Rodrigo DePaul.
Alvarez, De Paul and Giuliano Simeone also missed opportunities in the first half.
There was no spark in the attack and Simeone decided to bring Norwegian Sørloth off the bench after the break to replace Lino, moving Alvarez to the left wing. His team kept pressing, but missed too many opportunities and were often exposed to counter-attacks.
However, they eventually scored the winner thanks to a brilliant cross from substitute Molina, which put Sørloth in great position and gave Atlético three valuable points as they prepare to face leaders Barcelona next Saturday.
