Atletico Madrid needed Thomas Lemar to come off the bench and score an 85th-minute winner against Eibar on Saturday as they stretched their lead over Real Madrid to seven points in La Liga.
Real play at home to in-form Athletic Bilbao on Sunday but Atletico took another step towards finishing above their city rivals for a second consecutive year by squeezing past Eibar 1-0 at Ipurua.
Without Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa, who were both suspended, Diego Simeone’s side looked set for a stalemate that would have given Real at least a sniff of second place.
Instead Lemar, on as a substitute, tucked home at the back post to end Eibar’s resistance and reduce the gap behind run-away leaders Barcelona to six points.
Eibar have now won only once in their last eight games and stay 13th.
Lemar’s goal will have done his confidence no harm either, after a difficult debut season with Atleti, who paid €60 million to sign the Frenchman from Monaco last summer. Simeone will hope for more from the 23-year-old next term.
Speaking after the game, however, Simeone pointed to a controversial incident between Alberola Rojas and Alvaro Morata where the referee slapped the Atletico man on the back of the neck.
Watch the Atletico boss had to say in the clip above.
