GIRONA: Alexander Sorloth sho-wed once again why he is such a dangerous option off the bench for Atletico Madrid as he came on to score a hat-trick in under half-an-hour in a 4-0 win at Girona on Sunday in La Liga. Diego Simeone’s side continued their Club World Cup preparations in a dead rubber league match at Montilivi, with Atletico locked into third place and Girona safe from relegation. Atletico manager Diego Simeone decided to leave several key starters on the bench, including goalkeeper Jan Oblak who with 30 goals conceded in 36 games, finished the season with the lowest goals-to-games ratio for the fifth time in his career. Introduced in the 62nd minute for Antoine Griezmann, Sorloth broke the deadlock after 68 minutes. Clement Lenglet extended Atletico’s lead before Sorloth struck two more late on to reach 20 La Liga goals, 12 of those as a substitute. Girona, who last season were the surprise packages of La Liga, ended 16th in the standings on 41 points, one clear of the relegation spots. “We played a good game, which will be useful for the Club World Cup in the US that starts in less than an month because we will play many afternoon games under this same heat. Sorloth is a machine and he doesn’t need many chances to score,” Atletico defender Axel Witsel told Movistar Plus. Atletico are in a tough Group ‘B’ at the new-look 32-team tournament starting next month, along with Champions League finalists Paris St-Germain, South American champions Botafogo and MLS side Seattle Sounders. On Saturday, Celta Vigo great Iago Aspas netted the winner as his team qualified for the Europa League for the first time since 2017 with a 2-1 win at Getafe in their final match to finish seventh. Rayo Vallecano, eighth, also qualified for the Conference League with a 0-0 draw against Mallorca to return to continental competition for the first time since 2001. Osasuna, ninth missed out on Europe with a worse head-to-head than Rayo as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Deportivo Alaves. Elsewhere, Leganes were relegated despite a 3-0 win over Real Valladolid, as Espanyol beat Las Palmas 2-0 to survive, in their final league matches. Leganes immediately returns to La Liga 2 after only one season in the top flight. They are dropping with Las Palmas, who are going down after two years and Valladolid, who have yo-yoed between divisions for the last four years. Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2025