MADRID: Atletico Madrid ended its winless streak and moved closer to Spanish league leader Barcelona by defeating Las Palmas 3-0 on Sunday.
Antoine Griezmann, Fernando Torres and substitute Thomas Partey scored second-half goals to move Atletico within eight points of Barcelona, which hosts Alaves later.
Atletico opened a six-point gap to third-place Valencia, which lost at home to Real Madrid on Saturday. Madrid is fourth, two points behind Valencia with a game in hand.
Atletico was coming off elimination against Sevilla in the Copa del Rey quarterfinals, and it hadn't won since a league game at Eibar two weeks ago. It was held 1-1 against Girona in its last match at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
"It wasn't a very good first half for us but we recovered and created many chances," Griezmann said. "We still have two competitions left and we will keep fighting until the end."
Atletico didn't get past the group stage of the Champions League last year and will now be playing in the Europa League.
Griezmann broke the deadlock early in the second half after a great pass by Juanfran Torres into open space. The France forward entered the area and flicked the ball over goalkeeper Leandro Chichizola.
Torres scored a superb goal in a breakaway about 10 minutes later, clearing a defender inside the area before shooting into the top corner. Partey closed the scoring from close range two minutes from the end after another counter-attack.
Las Palmas, which had defeated Valencia at home in the previous round to snap a seven-match winless run, stayed second-to-last in the 20-team standings. It's one point ahead of bottom side Malaga.
Atletico was without forward Diego Costa because of a muscle injury.
LEGANES ON A RUN
Leganes kept its momentum after a shock 2-1 win at Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey by defeating Espanyol 3-2 at home.
Leganes eliminated Madrid in the Copa quarterfinals with the surprise victory at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Wednesday, then moved up the league standings on Sunday by taking advantage of a tough afternoon for Espanyol defender Mario Hermoso.
Hermoso scored two own-goals before finally finding the net for his own team late in the game at Butarque Stadium.
The 22-year-old Hermoso scored his first own-goal while trying to intercept a low cross inside the area in the 11th minute, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead. He did it again while trying to clear a cross in the 82nd, allowing Leganes to take a 3-1 advantage.
Hermoso partly made amends by scoring for Espanyol six minutes later as the ball careened off his face and went into the net after being punched away by goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar.
The result extended Espanyol's winless streak to three matches in all competitions.
Leganes reached 11th place.