Juanmi double blows hole in Atletico title hopes

A brace from late substitute Juanmi sealed a precious 3-0 win for Real Sociedad to virtually end Atletico Madrid's fading hopes of challenging for the Spanish league title.

With a 12-point deficit to Barcelona, Atletico were already facing an uphill task to overhaul the runaway La Liga leaders.

Now with only five games remaining, Diego Simeone's men would be forgiven for focusing their remaining efforts on making sure they finish second ahead of Real Madrid -- now just three points adrift -- and their bid to win the Europa League.

Atletico face Arsenal in the semi-finals of Europe's second tier competition next week. Simeone warned on Tuesday his side would have to start improving if they were to stop star striker Antoine Griezmann from being lured to a rival club. Barcelona and England's Premier League are, according to reports, his favoured destinations.

And after this performance, the Argentine should have even more reason for concern. "Today, we played poorly in the first half and in the second half we improved at first, but didn't have the consistency to find the equalizer," said Simeone.

"We have to congratulate Real Sociedad because they played a great match and won fairly."