La Liga Review: Griezmann the man for Atleti, Villarreal gain fifth straight win

Antoine Griezmann’s first Atletico Madrid hat-trick helped Diego Simeone’s men come from behind to see off Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in La Liga on Sunday.

The Spanish champions were lacklustre for long spells of the first half at San Mames and fell behind to a Mikel Rico header after 17 minutes.

However, Simeone saw his side turn in a much improved display after the break as former Real Sociedad man Griezmann levelled within a minute of the second half. 

Raul Garcia’s penalty gave the visitors the lead before Griezmann continued his impressive record against his former club’s rivals by registering a hat-trick to keep Atletico on the tails of Barcelona and Real Madrid going into the mid-season break.

Atletico sit four points behind leaders Real, who have a game in hand.

Earlier, Villarreal continued their fine form with a comfortable 3-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna – despite seeing Pina sent off 10 minutes from time. 

Marcelino’s side have now won their past five league matches in a row and have not conceded in La Liga since November 23.

Jonathan dos Santos got the hosts off to a strong start at the Madrigal 10 minutes in before Luciano Vietto struck twice in the space of six second-half minutes.

Pina’s late red mattered little as Deportivo remain winless on the road in the league since mid-September. 

Granada were on course to end 2014 out of the relegation spots but were held to a 1-1 draw by Getafe – Emiliano Velazquez equalising 12 minutes from the end. 

Joaquin Caparros’ side slipped to 18th after Almeria’s 1-0 win over Celta Vigo on Friday but would have moved out of the bottom three again had Jhon Cordoba’s opener proven a winner.

However, Velazquez had other ideas – with fellow strugglers Elche also staying in the drop zone following a 2-1 defeat to Malaga.

The league’s bottom side were on course to join Almeria, Depor and Granada on 13 points when David Lomban opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero. 

Ignacio Camacho struck early in the second half before Luis Alberto completed the turnaround for Malaga who move to 30 points – a club-record haul at this stage of a La Liga season.