Diego Simeone praises ruthless Barcelona

Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has praised Barcelona for their ruthless display against Elche at Camp Nou on Sunday.

A hat-trick from Alexis Sanchez helped the Catalan outfit to a 4-0 win that moved them above Atletico and into top spot in La Liga.

Atletico were also victorious over Elche earlier in the season, but needed two late goals to claim all the points against the newly-promoted outfit.

"We saw the reality on television. After two minutes, Barca have a shot on goal, after seven a goal, after 14 minutes it's 2-0. I turned off the television for something else. There was no game," he told reporters a press conference.

"It took them 15 minutes to do what we did in 78, with Neymar resting, [Lionel] Messi recovering, without [Sergio] Busquets."

Atletico welcome Barcelona to the Vicente Calderon in the league at the weekend.