Madrid: Real Madrid took advantage of Atletico Madrid’s first defeat of the season at Sevilla to move to the top of La Liga as Alvaro Morata struck a late winner to secure a 2-1 win Sunday over Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Steven N’Zonzi struck Sevilla’s winner 17 minutes from the time to seal a 1-0 win at a soggy Sanchez Pizjuan.
Real lead Sevilla by a point and Barcelona and Villarreal by two at the top of the table. Atletico, who started the weekend top, slip to fifth, three points back on their city rivals.
“We are not going to have easy matches and we will have to fight until the end from now on,” said Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane. “That is the message I always transmit to my players and today (Sunday) we believed and didn’t give up in the difficult moments.”
Real couldn’t have hoped for a better start when Enric Saborit’s slip allowed Isco to tee up Karim Benzema for a simple finish after just seven minutes.
However, Real’s defensive deficiencies surfaced once more when Athletic levelled in scrappy fashion as Javier Eraso’s tenacity won the ball inside the Real box for Merino to slot home.
Cristiano Ronaldo suffered another off night in front of goal and was even jeered by the Bernabeu crowd when he shot straight at Gorka Iraizoz with Isco and Benzema begging for a cut-back for a tap in.
Zidane turned to birthday boy Morata and got him off the bench 15 minutes from time. And the Spanish international ensured Real didn’t drop points at home for a third consecutive La Liga game as he bundled Gareth Bale’s low cross home at the near post.
Atletico were also left to rue not taking their chances in the first half as on-loan Atletico striker Luciano Vietto came back to haunt his parent club. He clipped a fine ball over an uncharacteristically static Atletico defence for N’Zonzi to run through and slot coolly past Jan Oblak.
Agence France-Presse