Atletico Madrid mark milestone Diego Simeone match with win over Real Mallorca

Goals from Samuel Lino and Antoine Griezmann allowed Atletico Madrid to keep up the pressure at the top of LaLiga with a 2-0 win over Real Mallorca in Diego Simeone’s 500th league game in charge.

Lino struck in the 26th minute to score only his third goal of the season, but second in as many league outings, before Griezmann found the net in stoppage time to add a second goal that Atletico’s performance deserved.

Simeone, who has been at the helm of Atletico for more than 13 years, is the eighth manager to reach 500 games in LaLiga, and the first to do it with a single club.

Mallorca made a bright start to the game with Cyle Larin and Vedat Muriqi full of running and asking questions of Atletico, who seemed to be missing the presence of the suspended Rodrigo De Paul in midfield.

But as the game moved past the quarter-hour mark the hosts gradually found a foothold, with most of their best moves developing down the left as Lino and the excellent Julian Alvarez combined well.

The first big chance came in the 20th minute when Alvarez picked out Alexander Sorloth, but Dominik Greif got a big hand to his shot to to keep it out.

Lino then saw a shot blocked from a corner before finding the net minutes later. His goal came on the counter-attack as Robin Le Normand dispossessed Muriqi before Giuliano Simeone found Lino in the box and he beat Greif with a left-footed strike.

Mallorca struggled for a response as Atletico asserted their dominance. Alvarez set up Simeone inside the box and it took a superb close-range save to deny the hosts a second.

A mix-up in the Mallorca defence then allowed Marcos Llorente a shot but it was blocked by Antonio Raillo.

Atletico looked to have taken a stranglehold early in the second half, but Pablo Barrios’s shot was excellently charged down by Larin.

There was another excellent chance in the 66th minute after good play from Le Normand and Barrios but Griezmann, on as a substitute for Alvarez, could not stretch far enough to turn it in at the far post.

Mallorca then went close to an equaliser out of nowhere as Sergi Darder’s free-kick was pushed on to the crossbar by Jan Oblak.

Substitutes Robert Navarro and Takuma Asano had given Mallorca and new dimension, and they threatened again in the 74th minute to give Atletico some cause for nerves as the game moved into the final stages.

However, those nerves would soon be settled. Barrios sent a volleyed effort wide of the box from the edge of the area, and Riquelme then struck the crossbar with a free-kick.

Instead it was Griezmann who settled it in stoppage time, chipping Grief with a delightful finish after being played in by Riquelme.