Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Reuters
Reuters
Sport

Joao Felix, Suarez fire relentless Atletico to victory over Valencia

Soccer Football - La Liga Santander - Atletico Madrid v Valencia - Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain - January 24, 2021 Atletico Madrid's Luis Suarez scores their second goal REUTERS/Juan Medina

Joao Felix and Luis Suarez combined to devastating effect as Atletico Madrid came from behind to beat Valencia 3-1 at home on Sunday to continue their relentless pursuit of the La Liga title.

Valencia took a shock lead in the 11th minute with an unstoppable long-range strike from Serbian midfielder Uros Racic but the league leaders responded in the 23rd when Felix stuck out a foot to prod home from a corner.

The Portuguese forward then latched on to a through ball to launch a quick counter attack early in the second half and released Suarez, who took a couple of touches before striking in off the far post from a tight angle.

Soccer Football - La Liga Santander - Atletico Madrid v Valencia - Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain - January 24, 2021 Atletico Madrid's Luis Suarez celebrates scoring their second goal with Joao Felix REUTERS/Juan Medina

The Uruguayan, who was celebrating his 34th birthday, moved joint-top of La Liga's goalscoring charts alongside Sevilla's Youssef En-Nesyri, with 12 strikes from 15 games since being forced out of Barcelona last year.

He also struck both goals, including winning and earning a last-minute penalty, in Thursday's come-from-behind 2-1 win at Eibar.

Substitute Angel Correa then finished off a fine move from Marcos Llorente in the 72nd minute to clinch a seventh league win in a row for Diego Simeone's side.

Soccer Football - La Liga Santander - Atletico Madrid v Valencia - Wanda Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain - January 24, 2021 Atletico Madrid's Luis Suarez celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Juan Medina

Atletico lead the standings with 47 points from 18 games, seven ahead of nearest challengers Real Madrid and with a game in hand. Valencia are 14th on 20 points.

"It's perfect to play alongside a striker like Luis Suarez. He just keeps scoring goals and he is so important for the team," said Felix.

"We may have fallen behind early but we're a team that keeps fighting until the end. We're doing so well, we just focus on each game and that's what we need to keep doing. We're not looking at how many points we have."

(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.