MADRID, Jan 23 — Alvaro Morata’s second-half winner secured Atletico Madrid a 1-0 victory at Granada yesterday, taking Diego Simeone’s men into the La Liga top four.

The capital club took advantage of Athletic Bilbao’s 1-0 loss at Valencia on Saturday to move above the Basque team into fourth on goals scored, with a game in hand.

Atletico are a distant 11 points adrift of surprise league leaders Girona.

Visitors Atletico made a slow start against their second-bottom opponents, but Rodrigo Riquelme forced Granada goalkeeper Augusto Batalla into a good save in the 31st minute, seconds before Antoine Griezmann rattled the crossbar.

Morata broke the deadlock, though, in the 55th minute with a header, from a Griezmann cross, which survived a VAR check for offside.

Samuel Lino then struck the bar, before Saul Niguez’s effort was ruled out by VAR for offside.

Griezmann hit the woodwork for a second time late on when his attempt came back off the post, but Atletico were able to close out just their second league win in five games. — AFP