La Liga: Atletico beat Betis 3-0 ahead of Liverpool visit

Atletico were left disappointed as Hermoso scored in the opening minutes of the second half, but the goal was disallowed due to a tight offside. Giménez was their next player to have a great chance -- a header that flew just wide.

Madrid:Defending La Liga champions Atletico Madrid produced a brilliant performance in rain on Sunday to beat Real Betis 3-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano to leap over their opponents to the fourth position in the La Liga points table.

Atletico rode on goals by Belgian national Yannick Carrasco and Joao Félix and an own goal by Betis center-back Germán Pezzella to take three points from the match. With this win, Atletico moved to 22 points from 11 games, jumping over Betis (21) to be placed behind Real Madrid, Sevilla, and Real Sociedad, all three with 24 points but separated by goal difference.

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On Sunday, Atleti produced an excellent start to the game, creating chance after chance. The first was for Gimenez, who almost headed home. Next was Correa, who curled the ball with his right foot and was inches wide. Betis goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was forced to step up to deny strikes from De Paul and Antoine Griezmann. However, he was unable to stop Carrasco's sensational left-foot strike in the 27th minute. The Belgian scored a fantastic solo goal to put Atletico in front.

Atletico were left disappointed as Hermoso scored in the opening minutes of the second half, but the goal was disallowed due to a tight offside. Giménez was their next player to have a great chance -- a header that flew just wide.

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Betis also came close to scoring, but Atleti dominated throughout the second half. They finally doubled the lead in the 64th minute as Griezmann took a corner and Pezzella scored an own goal. Diego Simeone's team kept pushing under the intense Madrid rain, and the Argentine manager made his first change with 20 minutes to go, when Joao Félix replaced Luis Suárez.

It didn't take long for the Portuguese to make it 3-0 after Carrasco provided an excellent through ball, thus sealing a well-deserved win that will be a big morale booster ahead of a tough encounter in the Champions League with Liverpool at Anfield in a couple of days.

IANS