Real Sociedad 0-3 Atletico Madrid: Grimaldo paves the way for late win

Alejandro Grimaldo grabbed a goal and an assist to get Atletico Madrid back to winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Real Sociedad in LaLiga.

It looked like Atletico's winless run in all competitions was going to stretch to a third game, but Grimaldo scored a late penalty and teed up Jonathan David before Giuliano Simeone rounded off the scoring.

Lee Kang-in flashed an early shot wide of the near post and Morten Hjulmand glanced a header wide as Atletico failed to capitalise on a bright start.

Luka Sucic then could not rearrange his feet quickly enough to fire on target when a knockdown from a corner fell to him, and his first-time effort bounced narrowly wide.

Sergio Gomez's free-kick was tipped over by Jan Oblak just before the break, while Carlos Soler's long-range fizzer was well held by the goalkeeper shortly after the hour.

But matters turned in Atletico's favour in the final 10 minutes as Job Ochieng was penalised for a handball in the box, and Grimaldo confidently stepped up to slot in from 12 yards.

And the wing-back then helped make sure of the points in the 90th minute as he led a blistering counter-attack before threading it through for David, who got the ball out of his feet before drilling his low effort just out of Alex Remiro's reach.

But it was Simeone who had the final say, punishing La Real's slack defending once more after steaming forward from the halfway line to fire a 95th-minute goal through Remiro.

Atletico put on a late, late show

After back-to-back losses against Athletic Club and Liverpool in LaLiga and the Champions League, respectively, Atletico were in need of a victory.

The hosts gave up few chances in the first half, and in fact had the only effort on target before the break, but Atletico showed their clinical side late on to get over the line. 

They had nine second-half shots, with five of those on target, as they accumulated 1.76 expected goals (xG), a vast improvement on their 0.16 before the break.

Atletico have also scored five goals in the last 15 minutes of games this term, with only Barcelona (six) netting more in LaLiga.

As for Grimaldo, he scored and assisted his first goals in LaLiga for Atletico, stepping up at just the right time to get them on top.

That resilience will come in handy for Diego Simeone's men throughout the season, and the victory moved them back up to fourth in the table on 10 points, though they still remain off the pace set by Barcelona's perfect start.