MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Atletico Madrid moved level on points with Barcelona at the top of La Liga after goals from Koke and Diego Costa gave them a hard-fought 2-0 win at Elche yesteray.

After a first-half devoid of clear-cut scoring opportunities, Atletico took the lead on 63 minutes when Koke bundled home from close range.

Costa had endured a quiet afternoon by his standards but he doubled the advantage 11 minutes later as he raced onto Adrian Lopez’s through ball before slotting home his 18th goal of the season.

Real Madrid can move to within three points of the leaders when they host Valladolid later yesterday, whilst Barcelona aren’t in action until today when they travel to fifth-placed Athletic Bilbao.

Atletico boss Diego Simeone had recalled six first-team regulars who had been rested for Tuesday’s 1-1 draw away to Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League.

However, he recognised that it wasn’t until the introduction of Raul Garcia and Adrian in the second-half that Atletico began to take control.

“It is a very important victory against a very difficult opponent,” he said.

“We started well in the first-half but then Elche had two or three dangerous counter-attacks.

“At half-time we talked and saw that we needed to use the wings more. The introduction of Raul Garcia and Adrian gave us the creativity we needed in the tightest moments of the game.”

Indeed, it was the home side that had the better of the chances early on as Coro and Richmond Boakye fired just off target.

Atletico improved as the first-half went on and Arda Turan also saw a fierce strike from distance fly just over before Damian Suarez blocked Diego Costa’s goalbound effort after Manuel Herrera had flapped at a cross.

The second-half started in similar fashion as Carlos Gil forced a fine flying save from Thibaut Courtois to keep Atletico on level terms.

Simeone’s men finally made the breakthrough just after the hour mark as Herrera spilled Raul Garcia’s shot from the edge of the area and Koke slotted home the rebound despite claims from the home side that Costa had fouled Alberto Botia in the build-up.

If Elche felt hard done by in the decision to award the opener, they were handed a lifeline five minutes later when Arda Turan had a goal harshly ruled out for a foul on Herrera after pouncing on another error from the keeper.