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- Girona 0-4 Atletico Madrid: Substitute Sorloth hat-trick ends season in style
Girona 0-4 Atletico Madrid: Substitute Sorloth hat-trick ends season in style
Diego Simeone needed some inspiration from substitute Alexander Sorloth to see Atletico Madrid comfortably past Girona in LaLiga.
Alexander Sorloth came off the bench to score a second-half hat-trick and help Atletico Madrid wrap up their underwhelming season with an impressive 4-0 win at lowly Girona on Sunday.
With Barcelona having secured the LaLiga title, there was not much to play for at a half-empty Montilivi stadium where two depleted squads squared up in a game that was slow to get going.
Diego Simeone decided to leave several key starters on the bench, though Atletico dominated possession without reward in the opening half.
It took them 68 minutes to break the deadlock through Sorloth's close-range strike after Girona made a poor mistake and Rodrigo De Paul set up the Norway striker to tap the ball into an empty net.
Clement Lenglet headed in a rebound in the 87th minute before Sorloth took advantage of two quick counters to score twice in added time.
Atletico finished their LaLiga campaign in third place on 76 points, with Barca, who host Athletic Bilbao later on Sunday, topping the standings with 85 points, one point ahead of Real Madrid in second.
Athletic Bilbao and Villarreal complete the top five, who will all represent Spain in next season's Champions League.
Girona, who last season were the surprise packages, ended 16th on 41 points, just one point clear of the relegation spots.
Data Debrief: Super sub Sorloth
Sorloth's hat-trick made him the first player to score 10 goals as a substitute in a single LaLiga season this century.
It also saw Atletico become the first LaLiga side this century to have two substitutes score hat-tricks from the bench, with Sorloth joining Kevin Gameiro, against Sporting Gijon in 2017.
Simeone's side will be disappointed with their failure to challenge the top two, though they have kept 17 clean sheets this season, the most of any side in the competition.
His defence were rarely troubled on Sunday as Atletico amassed 2.92 expected goals to Girona's timid 0.05.