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Antoine Griezmann's second-half strike helped Atletico Madrid return to winning ways in LaLiga with a 2-1 victory over Valencia.

After successive defeats to Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, Diego Simeone's side registered a first win in three matches to close the gap to Barcelona to six points.

Koke opened his account for the season to put Atletico in front but an encouraging Valencia performance was rewarded when Lucas Beltrán equalised in the second half, after Valencia's Pepelu had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside before the break.

Atletico had to fight for the win and Griezmann's piece of brilliance was enough to give them an important three points to keep up with the title chasing pack.

Valencia came close to opening the scoring inside the first minute when the ball fell for Hugo Duro inside the area but he rattled the crossbar which let Atletico off the hook for what would have been a nightmare start.

The hosts started to find their groove after a quarter of an hour, though, and Alexander Sorloth latched onto a neat through ball but drew a save from Julen Agirrezabala who palmed behind for a corner.

And the hosts got their noses in front four minutes later.

Valencia failed to deal with a corner into the box and Matteo Ruggeri's initial effort was palmed back into the danger zone by Agirrezabala but Koke was on hand to tuck the rebound low into the left corner.

Valencia thought they were on level terms when Pepelu took advantage of a goalmouth scramble and tucked home but celebrations were all in vain after VAR ruled the goal out for offside.

But the visitors did finally get a deserved leveller just after the hour mark courtesy of a beautiful team goal.

Valencia knocked the ball around and André Almeida advanced with the ball with some neat footwork and played it to Beltran who whipped a stunner past Jan Oblak from distance.

Atletico regained their lead in sensational fashion when Marc Pubill sent a pass over the top which Griezmann picked out and smashed past Agirrezabala.

The home side thought they extended their advantage minutes later, this time Griezmann turned creator for Sorloth who went on to celebrate but was later denied for offside.