La Liga round-up: Sevilla hit four past Malaga in first-half to go second
Saturday 17 December 2016 22:08, UK
Sevilla surged up to second in LaLiga as four goals in 10 minutes steered them to a 4-1 home victory over Malaga.
Luciano Vietto netted twice before Wissam Ben Yedder swept in a third. Vitolo added a fourth, with all Sevilla's goals coming between the 25th and 35th minutes.
They may have added more in the second period had it not been for Adil Rami's dismissal, and Sandro Ramirez pulled one back for Malaga.
Barcelona can reclaim second spot going into the winter break if they beat local rivals Espanyol on Sunday night.
Villarreal kept the pressure on the top three as Alexandre Pato inspired them to a 3-1 victory away to Sporting Gijon.
The Yellow Submarine had won just one of their previous seven matches away from home in the league and scored only five goals, but reversed the form guide in spectacular fashion at El Molinon.
Jonathan dos Santos and Nicola Sansone put the visitors 2-0 up at the break and Pato got the goal he deserved with 16 minutes to go before Carlos Carmona pulled one back for Sporting, who remain in deep trouble and have won only one of their last 13 league games.
Atletico Madrid bounced back from their 3-0 defeat to Villarreal last time out as they edged to a 1-0 victory over Las Palmas at the Estadio Vicente Calderon.
Both sides hit the woodwork in an entertaining opening 45 minutes, with Saul Niguez striking the inside of a post from an acrobatic volley before Mauricio Lemos stepped out of defence to crack a 40-yard shot against the Atleti crossbar.
Las Palmas continued to frustrate the hosts but Antoine Griezmann went close on a couple of occasions prior to Saul earning the victory with a wonderful curling effort for his first goal of the season.
Real Sociedad's excellent run of recent form continued as they secured a 2-0 victory away to struggling Granada.
Eusebio Sacristan's team have lost just one of their last seven matches and took the lead in atrocious conditions when Jon Bautista scored just two minutes after coming on as a substitute and Juanmi's goal with 20 minutes to go made sure.
Granada were unable to build on their impressive win over Sevilla in their last game at Los Carmenes, which remains their only victory from 16 games as they remained second-bottom of LaLiga. The win took Sociedad up to fifth and within one point of the top three.
