Atletico Madrid go top of La Liga

Madrid, Feb 3 (IANS) Atletico Madrid went to the top of the Spanish Primera Liga after a 4-1 win at home against Real Sociedad.

Atletico went into the game Sunday night knowing that a point would be enough to lift them above Barcelona and on a night charged with emotion following the death of former Spain coach, Luis Aragones, a former Atletico player, who coached the club on four separate occasions, there was never any result on the cards other than a home win, reports Xinhua.

David Villa opened the scoring after 37 minutes but the game was not decided until the 72nd minute when Diego Costa made it 2-0 after the visitors had seen two confident penalty appeals for handball turned down.

After the second goal the game was all but over and Joao Miranda added a third in the 74th minute before Diego Ribas celebrated his return to the club with a goal two minutes from time.

The only negative point of the night was the insults aimed at Atletico's Basque rivals by most radicals of the home crowd.

Real Madrid could have moved into second place with a win, but were held to a 1-1 draw in Bilbao by a magnificent Athletic Club who may have been a bit unfortunate not to win a thrilling game.

The visitors, who have not conceded a goal in 2014 took the lead after 63 minutes thanks to Jese Rodriguez, but Ibai Gomez's eighth goal of the season assured points were shared.

Valencia caused one of the upsets of the season when they fought back from 0-1 down against Barcelona to upset the leaders of the BBVA Primera Liga 3-2 in the Camp Nou Stadium Saturday night.