Atletico closes on Real Madrid ahead of derby

Madrid - Atletico Madrid's fine form continued as Filipe Luis scored the winner in a 1-0 win over Real Sociedad to close to within seven points of La Liga leader Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Luis had scored his first goal of the season in Saturday's 2-0 win at Malaga and netted for the second consecutive game for the first time in his career by rounding off a fine team move on 28 minutes.

Fernando Torres, Yannick Carrasco, and Angel Correa all passed up chances to add to Atletico's advantage, but it held on to move three points clear of Sevilla in the battle for third.

Real Madrid still has two games in hand on Atletico, but the two face each other in the Madrid derby on Saturday.

Real and Barcelona are in action on Wednesday when they take on Leganes and Sevilla respectively.

Atletico will travel to the Santiago Bernabeu brimming with confidence after a fifth straight La Liga win.

Despite a difficult opening spell as Sociedad dominated possession, Diego Simeone's lot had the chances to kill the game off before half-time.

Antoine Griezmann came close twice in quick succession against his former club as his first effort was deflected behind before Geronimo Rulli got down well to save low to his right.

Carrasco was also then wasteful as he shot too close to Rulli after an unselfish cutback by Griezmann.

Griezmann was replaced by Angel Correa with 19 minutes remaining as Diego Simeone looked ahead to Saturday's derby and the visit of Leicester in its Champions League quarter-final, first leg next midweek.

And Correa also passed up a huge chance to seal the three points when he blasted wide with just Rulli to beat 10 minutes later.