La Liga round-up: Espanyol inflict Atletico Madrid's first La Liga defeat of the season

Posted Saturday, December 23, 2017 by Skysports.com

La Liga round-up: Espanyol inflict Atletico Madrid's first La Liga defeat of the season
Antoine Griezmann was helpless as Atletico Madrid slipped to their first league defeat of the season

Atletico Madrid's unbeaten start to La Liga came to an end with a shock 1-0 defeat at Espanyol.

Sergio Garcia's late goal saw the hosts join Chelsea as the only side to have beaten Diego Simeone's men in all competitions this season.

Garcia's first league goal of the campaign came with two minutes left to earn the Catalan side a first win in four outings.

Diego Godin headed in for Atletico but it was ruled out for a push while Kevin Gameiro fired straight at goalkeeper Pau Lopez after breaking through the Espanyol defence.

And they were punished when Garcia kept his cool at the end of a quick break to steer into the bottom right corner.

Second-placed Atletico missed the chance to close the gap on leaders Barcelona ahead of Saturday's El Clasico, when Ernesto Valverde's side can extend their advantage at the top to nine points.

Athletic Bilbao extended their unbeaten La Liga run to six games with a 2-0 win at 10-man Real Betis.

Jose Angel Ziganda's side had won just one of their last eight games, but have now picked up seven points from a possible nine after taking advantage of Jordi Amat's 34th-minute dismissal.

Amat was adjudged to have pulled down Aymeric Laporte in the penalty area and then immediately appeared to swing his boot in the defender's direction.

The on-loan Swansea defender was sent off and Raul Garcia rolled home the resulting spot-kick low to goalkeeper Antonio Adan's right.

Athletic wrapped up victory with five minutes left when Zouhair Feddal headed Oscar de Marcos' cross into his own net, leaving Betis without a home win since October.