Gameiro dedicates hat-trick to grandmother

Kevin Gameiro dedicated his stunning hat-trick to his grandmother after inspiring Atletico Madrid to a 4-1 win over Sporting Gijon on Saturday.

The striker came off the bench to score three times in the space of five second-half minutes to give Diego Simeone’s side a win at El Molinon that takes them to within a point of third-place Sevilla.

Gameiro’s treble – the fastest in LaLiga since Bebeto’s for Deportivo La Coruna against Albacete in 1995 – ended a top-flight goal drought for the 29-year-old that stretched back to November.

And the former Sevilla man revealed a touching personal motivation behind his impressive cameo.

Asked if he expected to make such an impact, he told BeIN Sports: “No, I’m very happy. We played a good game.

“The goals are dedicated to my grandmother. We lost her this week and I’ve thought a lot about her. These three goals are for her.

“We worked hard to be ready for the 90 minutes. We know we can win games late on, we’ve done it many times, but it’s true that we need to start games better in order to be more relaxed.”

Sporting full-back Roberto Canella felt his side were punished for missing some good early chances during what had been an impressive display until Gameiro’s spectacular intervention.

“We had chances in the first half, but they have very good people up front, as we’ve seen,” he said.