Aguero double reignites Atletico´s Euro bid

A brace by Sergio Aguero led Atletico Madrid to a 2-0 victory over Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday to put them back on track in the hunt for a European place following rivals Villarreal’s shock 1-0 defeat by nine-man Getafe.

Atletico had fallen off the pace following three straight defeats but they were always in charge against a Deportivo side that has stuttered especially away from home.

It was Aguero’s night as he first won a penalty after being upended by keeper Daniel Aranzubia although Diego Forlan missed the follow-up spot-kick.

But Aguero then found the back of the net with a jinking run and shot, before adding to it ten minutes before half time.

Atletico are now up to sixth in the table but they are still seven points adrift of Villarreal who crashed 1-0 away to nine-man Getafe.

Juan Albin fired home in the dying minutes.

Daniel Diaz had already been dismissed and Albin was given a second yellow card for taking his shirt off when celebrating his goal.

Despite the red cards, Villarreal coach Juan Carlos Garrido still felt the referee cost them the game.

“There were too many stoppages which favoured Getafe as they organised their game to counter-attack. We needed there to be fluidity in the match,” he said.

Lowly Almeria produced an inspired performance to beat Sevilla 3-1 and pile the pressure on the troubled Andalusian side.

It was the first victory for new coach Jose Luis Oltra on his third attempt after taking charge following Almeria’s 8-0 thrashing by Barcelona last month.

Under-performing Sevilla looked tense as they started the game on the back of three straight defeats and their mood did not improve when Frederic Kanoute missed a penalty following a Fabian Vargas handball inside the area.

Almeria had plenty of good possession and scored with their first real chance at the start of the second half when a Vargas header just crept over the line.

A thunderbolt by Pablo Piatti increased the advantage and although Kanoute pulled a goal back, Piatti made certain of the points in injury time.

On Sunday in-form Barcelona take on Real Sociedad having scored 14 goals in their last three games and crucially five were against Real Madrid, which put them top of the table.

Coach Pep Guardiola realises though that they cannot relax against Sociedad.

“We are on a good run but we have been scoring a lot of goals for the last two or three years as well as conceding few,” he said.

“We have to be ready as we could find ourselves in a difficult situation very quickly and we have to be careful against Real Sociedad because they have been a big surprise this season and are capable of producing a shock.”

Real Madrid responded to their mauling by Barça with a 2-0 win over Valencia and they will be a tough test for bottom side Zaragoza.

Espanyol have put their confidence in youth products like Javi Marquez and Jose Callejon and so far it has been a major success with the team sitting in a Champions League place.

They face a big test with a trip to face Athletic Bilbao in their intimidating stadium.

Valencia’s form has dropped off with just one win in three games but they will look to get back on track against Osasuna and Mallorca, on the fringes of the European places play Racing Santander.