Champions Atletico Madrid thrashed dull neighbours and leaders Real 4-0 Saturday to stay in the Spanish league title race, dap reported. Tiago, Saul, Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic clinched Atletico's biggest win in a Madrid derby for more than 40 years. The result and left the defending champions in third place, level on 50 points with Barcelona, and four points behind Real. Barca visit Athletic Bilbao Sunday. "We needed to win in order to stay close to Real and Barca," said the Portuguese veteran Tiago. "We didn't allow Real any options at all today, everything went well from the first minute onwards ... We know that we are very strong with our fans behind us, and we have shown that again today. They (the fans) were simply wonderful, magnificent." Real defender Dani Carvajal said: "We will have to apologize to our fans for this. This is a difficult defeat for us. "We are in February and there is still a long way to go. But we are strong and we will carry on fighting." Real went into the game with a patched-up defence, without injury victims Sergio Ramos and Pepe plus the suspended Marcelo. Midfielders Luka Modric and James Rodriguez were also missing due to injury while Cristiano Ronaldo returned from suspension. In addition, the whites looked rather weary as a result of their extertions in Wednesday's 2-1 home defeat of Sevilla. Tiago sent the packed Estadio Calderon wild with joy by opening the score in the 13th minute, with a shot which Spain keeper Iker Casillas should really have saved. Youngster Saul - who came on for the injured Koke - then made it 2-0 with a spectacular overhead kick. Griezmann made it 3-0 in the 66th minute after Saul had headed on a centre from Arda Turan. Mandzukic completed the rout two minutes from time by heading in a centre from Fernando Torres. The only bad news for Atletico was the injuries sustained by Koke and Saul. Meanwhile, Sami Khedira joined Real's lengthy inujury list with a hamstring strain. Atletico have beaten Real four times this season and drawn twice, to take revenge for that agonizing Champions League final defeat last May. -- SPA 20:58 LOCAL TIME 17:58 GMT تغريد
