Gallagher shines as Atleti vanquishes Valencia
Atletico Madrid cruised to a convincing 3-0 home win over LaLiga's bottom side Valencia, with Conor Gallagher and Julian Alvarez scoring their first goals since moving to the capital club.
Alexander Sorloth, Marcos Llorente and Samuel Lino all went close in the first half before Atleti took the lead in the 39th minute, new signing Gallagher finishing into the bottom corner after latching on to a delightful defence-splitting pass from Rodrigo De Paul.
Valencia fought hard for an equaliser, with Javi Guerra's long-range effort going wide, but it was unable to prevent Antoine Griezmann from making it 2-0 after Lino's header fell into his path nine minutes after the break.
Another new recruit, Alvarez, put the icing on the cake with his first goal in the Spanish top flight since arriving from Manchester City, slotting home Rodrigo Riquelme's cross in the fourth minute of stoppage-time for the last action of the game.
Atletico, which remains unbeaten this season, moved back into second place, level on 11 points with Real Madrid in third and four behind leader Barcelona, both of those sides also winning their fixtures this matchday.
Gallagher's opener made him the third-youngest Englishman to net in LaLiga this century, at the age of 24 years and 222 days.
Only Jude Bellingham (20 years and 44 days) and Mason Greenwood (22 years, seven days) have done so at a younger age, both doing so in 2023.
Gallagher wasn't the only new recruit to impress against Valencia, though. Alvarez's goal made him the 14th Argentinian player to score for Atleti since the turn of the century, with no other foreign nation supplying as many unique goalscorers for Los Colchoneros in that time.
