Soccer-Atletico crush Alaves to retain faint title hopes

Atletico Madrid thrashed Alaves 4-0 on Saturday to keep alive their faint hopes of winning the La Liga title as they stayed 10 points behind leaders Barcelona. Diego Simeone's side dominated at Mendizorroza and triumphed with goals from Saul Niguez, Diego Costa, Alvaro Morata and Thomas Partey.

Costa's strike was the pick of the bunch, a curling effort in off the far post from outside the area, until Thomas struck a sublime shot into the top corner from distance. Hosts Alaves, fifth in the standings, spurned the chance to overtake fourth-placed Getafe who earlier lost 2-0 to Leganes. (Reporting by Rik Sharma, editing by Ed Osmond)