Antoine Griezmann nets as Atletico Madrid beat Espanyol

Antoine Griezmann scored his 16th La Liga goal of the season as Atletico Madrid recorded a 1-0 victory over Espanyol in Barcelona on Saturday night.

The only goal of the match came in the 73rd minute, with Griezmann pouncing on a loose ball inside the Espanyol box before finding the bottom corner with a low strike.

The result has seen third-placed Atletico move to within four points of second-placed Barcelona in La Liga, while Espanyol stay down in ninth following their 10th league defeat of the 2016-17 campaign.

Espanyol made an encouraging start to the match and came close early on through Jose Jurado, but the midfielder fired over the crossbar after smart work from Gerard Moreno.

Atletico's best chance of the first period fell to Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, but the Belgian international could not beat Diego Lopez in the Espanyol net.

The home side also impressed in the early stages of the second period, but Atletico started to move through the gears approaching the final 20 minutes, and they sealed the win in the 73rd minute when Griezmann coolly slotted past Lopez to score his 100th goal in Spain's top flight.

Leo Baptistao had a glorious chance to level for the hosts late on, but Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak was on hand to make a brilliant save as Diego Simeone's side secured all the points once again.