Pablo Barrios’ stoppage-time winner helped Atletico Madrid close the gap to the top two in LaLiga following a 2-1 victory away to Sevilla.

Diego Simeone’s side capitalised on Saturday’s results after leaders Barcelona were held by Real Betis, while Real Madrid were stunned by Valencia.

Atletico are now seven points behind Barcelona in the standings, with their victory on Sunday also halting a six-match winless streak across all competitions.

Sevilla opened the scoring in the seventh minute through Lucien Agoume’s fine finish from outside the box, rounding off a swift counter-attack by Garcia Pimienta’s team.

But Atletico were offered the chance to restore parity just before the half-hour mark when Conor Gallagher was fouled inside the penalty area by Sevilla captain Loic Balde.

Julian Alvarez assumed responsibility for the spot-kick, stepping up and sending Orjan Nyland the wrong way for his 12th LaLiga goal of the season.

Neither side were able to carve out any clear opportunities after the break, with Sevilla’s Nemanja Gudelj going close before Alvarez tested Nyland soon after.

However, in the second minute of second-half stoppage time, Barrios’ driving run from deep ended with a curled left-footed finish that nestled into the bottom-left corner.

Data Debrief: Atletico leave it late yet again

Atletico have now scored five 90+ minute winning goals this season in LaLiga, two of which have come against Sevilla, at least two more than any other team in the competition (three for Mallorca and Villarreal).

But they had to come from behind after Agoume’s opener. Indeed, his goal, timed at 7:00 minutes, is the third-earliest goal that Sevilla have scored against Atletico in the 21st century, after Ivan Rakitic in 2021 (06:41) and Luis Fabiano in 2010 (04:55).

Atletico’s victory also saw them win both meetings with Sevilla in the same LaLiga season for the fourth time in the Diego Simeone era (2012-13, 2017-18 and 2022-23).