Atletico Madrid beat Alaves 2-1 on Sunday to move up to third in La Liga, behind champions Barcelona.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico did their best to move a point clear of Javi Hernández’s side after league leaders Real Madrid beat the Catalans 2-1 in Saturday’s Clásico.
Atlético are three points ahead of Los Blancos and Girona, who have played a game less.
Álvaro Morata opened the scoring for Rodrigo Riquelme as Atletico beat 17th-placed Alaves at the Metropolitan Stadium.
And Guevara revived the death of Alaves, but it was too late.
Atlético’s 14th consecutive home win equaled the club record set at the former Vicente Calderon stadium in 2013.
“(The record) is not a coincidence.
We feel at home with our fans, they make us feel stronger.
This victory is very important for us,” Riquelme told Movistar.
“We’re on the right track, taking one step at a time and not thinking about rankings.”
Riquelme put Atletico ahead after 26 minutes before Antoine Griezmann laid the ball through to Morata, who headed the ball in at the back post.
The Spanish midfielder cleverly created space and fired into the near corner.
Morata doubled Atlético’s lead just before the end of the first half, receiving a long ball from Koke and cutting in from the right to head home.
Griezmann had a goal disallowed for a foul on Marcos Llorente in the second half as Atletico cruised.
Alaves pulled the ball back when Guevara shot from the edge of the box and goalkeeper Jan Oblak was partly to blame as he had to block the shot.
“We were much better in the second half, we should have played like that in the first half,” Alaves defender Javi Lopez told Movistar.
“I didn’t get good results outdoors…
(But) If we compete like this, there will be results.”
Earlier, Bebe’s late goal earned Rayo Vallecano a 2-2 draw with Real Sociedad.
The former Manchester United midfielder scored a vital goal in stoppage time for the second week in a row following his penalty against Las Palmas last weekend.
Mikel Oyarzabal doubled La Real’s fifth after Abdul Mumin scored for Rayo, but Bebe fired just wide from long range to share the spoils.
Rayo Vallecano are level on points with 7th and 8th placed Betis, who earlier beat Osasuna 2-1 thanks to Isco’s wonder goal.
Former Real Madrid player Willian set up Jose for the opener and Isco scored in stoppage time to delight Benito Villamarin after Ruben Garcia saved a goal for the visitors.
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