Atletico Madrid cruise to victory over Lokomotiv Moscow in first leg

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:33 am

Atletico Madrid grabbed a sizable advantage over Lokomotiv Moscow by earning a 3-0 victory in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 clash on Thursday.

Saul Niguez, Diego Costa and Koke were all on target at the Wanda Metropolitano to take the pressure off ahead of next week's trip to Russia.

Midway through the first half, Lokomotiv allowed Saul to have entirely too much space and he made them pay with a 30-yard rocket for the opening goal.

Saul
Saul
JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images

It was nearly 2-0 soon after when Antoine Griezmann refused to give up on a long ball forward and took it off the foot of goalkeeper Guilherme near the sideline, but he could not place his shot in the empty net from about 40 yards.

The second goal came two minutes into the second half as Saul played in Griezmann, whose low shot was stopped by a diving save Guilherme, but the goalkeeper could only parry it into path of Costa.

And with time winding down, Atletico added a third as Juanfran cut back a cross into the box that fell for Koke to lash into the net.