European football: Barcelona march on at top of La Liga as Inter scrape by Genoa

Dani Olmo and Ferran Torres came off the bench to rescue a 2-0 win for Barcelona at Las Palmas on Saturday that sent them back to the top of the La Liga table after a game that is unlikely to live long in the memory.

Barcelona now lead on 54 points, one ahead of Atlético Madrid. Real Madrid are third on 51 but have a game in hand and will host Girona on Sunday.

Both sides were largely toothless in attack in a slow-paced match and struggled to produce scoring opportunities, before Barça finally broke the deadlock in the 62nd minute with a shot from inside the box by Olmo.

Torres added the second goal at the death, taking advantage of a mistake by the home side’s defence to fire a low strike from close range five minutes into added time.

Diego Simeone heaped praise on Julián Álvarez after he scored twice in Atlético Madrid’s 3-0 win at Valencia. Simeone said he was delighted with Álvarez’s maturity and humility as well as his determination to work hard and stay focused despite a slow start in his debut season in the Spanish capital.

The coach said his 25-year-old Argentinian compatriot was everything they needed him to be when Atlético signed him in the close season in a deal worth €75m (£62m) plus €20m in potential add-ons from Manchester City.

“When he still couldn’t reflect with facts what we were looking for when we signed him, I said that I was sure he had Atléti’s DNA,” Simeone said. “That’s why we were so excited then and we are now. Especially because of the way he does things. He won everything by the age of 25 – the World Cup with Argentina, the Champions League and the Premier League with Manchester City, and he continues in the vein of that humility that makes him different from everyone else.”

Álvarez struck a rebound in the 12th minute to open the scoring and headed home an Antoine Griezmann cross in the 30th to extend Atlético’s lead. Atlético took their foot off the pedal after the break but managed to score the third goal through Correa ina quick counterattack in the 86th minute.

A goal from Lautaro Martínez was enough to earn Inter a 1-0 win over Genoa at the San Siro on Saturday and send the home side top of Serie A.

The win moved Inter to 57 points, one ahead of Napoli who are away to Como on Sunday.

After more than an hour played without a shot on target, Inter were then denied twice, with Mattia Bani clearing off the line from a corner before Genoa keeper Nicola Leali parried away Mehdi Taremi’s effort. Nicolo Barella thundered a shot off the crossbar as Inter piled on the pressure but it was Genoa who came nearest next with a close-range header from Caleb Ekuban blocked down by keeper Josep Martínez.

Martínez was making his league debut for Inter, with Yann Sommer out injured, having spent the last two seasons guarding the Genoa goal. Minutes later Inter had a corner at the other end and a glancing header from Lautaro Martínez took a deflection off Genoa midfielder Patrizio Masini to squirm past Leali and into the net with 12 minutes remaining.

Milan endured a frustrating evening when an early own goal from Malick Thiaw and a missed penalty from Christian Pulisic saw them fall 2-1 at Torino, leaving their top-four hopes in Serie A under pressure. The draw left Milan in seventh place with 41 points and six behind fourth-placed Lazio.

The out-rushing Milan keeper Mike Maignan attempted to clear the ball outside the box after five minutes, only for it to hit Thiaw and ricochet into the open net for an own goal.

Pulisic had a golden chance to level the score for Milan just after the half-hour mark, stepping up to the penalty spot after a handball from the hosts. But Vanja Milinkovic-Savic read the kick perfectly, diving to the right to deny Pulisic – the first penalty miss of the American’s career.

Tijjani Reijnders did equalise in the 74th minute but the Torino substitute Gvidas Gineitis restored the lead two minutes later.

Bayer Leverkusen eased past struggling Holstein Kiel 2-0 with a goal and an assist from Amine Adli to cut Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga lead to five points. The win earned Xabi Alonso a new all-time league record, his 28th consecutive away game in the league without defeat, more than any other coach in Bundesliga history.

It was one-way traffic from the start and Leverkusen, who face Bayern in the Champions League last 16, took the lead through Patrik Schick when he volleyed in a superb Adli cross at the far post in the ninth minute.

The Morocco international Adli, who returned to action only last week after a leg fracture in October, scored on the stroke of half-time, chipping the ball over Kiel keeper Timon Weiner after good early work from Florian Wirtz, who also went close twice late in the second half.

Leverkusen are second on 50 points, with Bayern in top spot on 55 and hosting Eintracht Frankfurt, third on 42, on Sunday.

Serhou Guirassy scored four goals to lead Borussia Dortmund to a 6-0 demolition of Union Berlin in their first league win under Niko Kovac. The Guinea international scored three of his goals in an eight-minute span late in the second half to take his league tally to 13 goals.

The hosts, who had lost their two previous league games under Kovac and earned only their second win in their last eight matches, moved into 10th place on 32 points.