Star forward Antoine Griezman followed up a hat trick against Sevilla with a four-goal performance against Leganes on Wednesday, helping Atletico Madrid keep pressure on Spanish league leader Barcelona.
The 4-0 win at Wanda Metropolitano Stadium moved Atletico within four points of the Catalan club, which plays at Las Palmas on Thursday.
Atletico's next league game is against Barcelona at Camp Nou Stadium.
Diego Simeone's team has won eight straight matches in all competitions, including six in a row in the league.
Griezmann has 12 goals in his last nine matches. He reached 15 goals in La Liga, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo for fourth in the scoring charts behind Iago Aspas, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi.
His three goals against Sevilla came in a 5-2 league win on Sunday.
"I'm happy with my performance," Griezmann said. "The most important thing was to earn the three points, and now we go to Barcelona to see if we can do something good there."
He opened the scoring from inside the area after a long low pass by Koke in the 26th, then added to the lead less than 10 minutes later with a well-struck free kick. His third goal came from inside the area after a cross by Filipe Luis early in the second half, and the fourth was a 67th-minute header after being set up by Diego Costa.
Griezmann had already struck the crossbar with another free kick in the first half, and later missed from inside the area in a one-on-one situation with goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar.
Costa also came close to scoring while one-on-one with Cuellar midway through the second half, and Diego Godin had a goal disallowed for offside a few moments later.
Leganes, 14th in standings, also struck the crossbar in the first half. The southern Madrid team hasn't won in eight matches in all competitions, including six in a row in the league.
There was a minute of silence before matches to honor former Barcelona and Sporting Gijon striker Enrique Castro "Quini," who died of a heart attack on Tuesday. He was 68.
(With AP Inputs)
