Antoine Griezmann, who came on for Alexander Sørloth, marked his 100th Champions League game with a goal, while Angel Correa scored twice as a substitute, but Álvarez was the man of the match.
The Argentine world champion started on top together with Sørloth in the Czech capital and wreaked havoc with the home defence. Sørloth also contributed, but was outshined by his partner.
Álvarez scored the lead directly from a free kick. Shortly after Sørloth was replaced in the 59th minute, the Argentine punctuated the game with the 3-0 goal after wall play with the coach’s son Giuliano Simeone.
At the end of the first half, it was Sørloth’s run and attempt to pounce that tricked goalkeeper Peter Vindahl so that Marcos Llorente’s cross went straight into the goal.
The match was far from settled when Sørloth was replaced by Griezmann, who in his anniversary match was involved in the prelude to 3-0 and scored 4-0 himself. Angel Correa sealed the result with two late goals after coming on for Álvarez.
Like Griezmann, Koke also came on for his 100th Champions League game.
Dominated
Sparta jumped straight from the kick-off, and after 50 seconds former LSK player Kaan Kairinen put visiting goalkeeper Jan Oblak to the test with a shot from a good position.
Then it was Atlético Madrid who played and created chances, and the team also got an early lead. After a quarter of an hour, Álvarez received a free kick 21 meters from the goal. He took it himself and turned the ball into the corner while Vindahl stood in the opposite corner and watched.
In the 37th minute, Sørloth got a great chance after an ugly mispass by Sparta player Matej Rynes. Álvarez broke the pass in front of Martin Vitik, advanced and played his Norwegian forward partner. Sørloth pulled away from Sparta captain Filip Panak and shot towards the corner, but Vindahl was on the scoresheet and hit for a corner.
Six minutes later, Sørloth and his teammates could still cheer. He ran onto Llorente’s cross and tried to head the ball. The cross was a few centimeters too high, but the Norwegian’s run tricked Vindahl, and the ball went straight into the goal.
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Helpless
Sparta lost striker Lukas Haraslin with a hamstring injury before half an hour had been played, and he had to watch from the bench while the team was taught a lesson.
In the 59th minute, Griezmann came straight from the bench and was involved in the prelude to the third goal. Álvarez played nicely with Simeone and scored from an acute angle. In the 70th minute, Griezmann himself scored on a pass from Llorente.
Correa made it 5-0 in the 85th minute on a pass from another substitute, Samuel Lino, and he didn’t give up until he had also made it 6-0. Atlético Madrid collected their third win in five games in league play, greatly improved their goal difference and climbed up the table.
Markus Solbakken was substituted in the 79th minute for Sparta, who are left with four points after their fifth game in league play.
In two weeks, Atlético Madrid will play at home against Slovan Bratislava, who suffered their fifth straight defeat on Tuesday with a 2-3 home loss to Milan. Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leão and Tammy Abraham scored for Milan, who, like Atlético, claimed their third win and moved up to nine points.
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