Late strike by Julian Alvarez secures Atletico Madrid narrow win at Celta in La Liga

Celta showed promise with more opportunities compared to Atletico, who seemed to lack energy before their upcoming derby against Real Madrid on Sunday. "Our attacking performance in the first half was not up to par," Simeone admitted to DAZN. "The substitutions injected some much-needed creativity into our game to help secure the win."

Simeone started his son Giuliano for the first time after some substitute appearances in recent weeks and left star summer signing Alvarez on the bench.

Atletico failed to take a single shot in a low quality first half, while Celta threatened seriously only just before the interval, when Jan Oblak saved brilliantly from Iago Aspas' drive.

The Slovenian goalkeeper made another superb stop from Borja Iglesias' close-range header after 57 minutes to keep Atletico level. However it was Atletico who claimed victory when former Manchester City striker Alvarez, on as a substitute, stayed sharp to prod home Griezmann's deep cross.

"(Scoring) helps for confidence, and it's always to help the team... these are three important points," said Alvarez. "We knew that it would be a difficult game, Celta have done very well at home. "Bit by bit we improved in the game, and in the second half we made some chances."

Also read: German court charges three in Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher blackmail case

Earlier Ayoze Perez netted twice to claim Villarreal a 2-1 win at Espanyol, taking the Yellow Submarine fourth. With six goals the Spain international trails only Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski in the scoring charts by one strike.

Home fans were angry with referee Alejandro Quintero Gonzalez's lenient officiating and one threw a plastic cup which struck the official as he walked off at full-time.

Real Betis could only secure a 1-1 draw at bottom of the table Las Palmas. Barcelona lead the league after their 1-0 win over Getafe on Wednesday with Real Madrid second, beating Alaves 3-2 on Tuesday.

Disclaimer: This story has been published from a news agency feed with minimal edits to adhere to web's style guide. The headline may have been changed to better reflect the content of the story or to make it more suitable for web audience.