It is hard to stop Antoine Griezmann these days.
The forward followed up a hat-trick against Sevilla with a four-goal performance against CD Leganes on Wednesday, helping Atletico Madrid keep pressure on La Liga leaders Barcelona.
The 4-0 win at Wanda Metropolitano moved Atletico within four points of the Catalan club, who were yesterday to play at UD Las Palmas.
Atletico’s next league game is against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
Diego Simeone’s team has won eight straight matches in all competitions, including six in a row in the league.
Griezmann has 12 goals in his past nine matches. He reached 15 goals in La Liga, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo for fourth in the scoring charts behind Iago Aspas, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.
His three goals against Sevilla came in a 5-2 league win on Sunday.
He opened the scoring from inside the area after a long, low pass by Koke in the 26th, then added to the lead less than 10 minutes later with a well-struck free-kick.
His third goal came from inside the area after a cross by Filipe Luis early in the second half, and the fourth was a 67th-minute header after being set up by Diego Costa.
Meanwhile, it just keeps getting worse for Clarence Seedorf with RC Deportivo de La Coruna, who lost 3-0 at Getafe to remain winless and scoreless since the former Dutch midfielder took over as coach four rounds ago.
Deportivo have not won in 11 straight matches and are second to last in the standings, in the relegation zone.
They lost their first two matches under Seedorf and drew the third one, all without scoring.
This is Seedorf’s third attempt at coaching after brief stints with AC Milan in 2014 and a Chinese club in 2016.
“We have to keep working hard,” Seedorf said. “In three days we have another match.”
Elsewhere, Valencia were held to a 1-1 draw by Athletic Bilbao, missing a chance to overtake Real Madrid for third place.
Sevilla rebounded from a humiliating 5-2 loss at home to Atletico Madrid by defeating last-place Malaga 1-0, with an early goal by forward Joaquin Correa at La Rosaleda.
Kike Garcia helped Sociedad Deportiva Eibar end a two-match losing streak by scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over sixth-place Villarreal.
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