Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone hailed the "timing" of matchwinner Antoine Griezmann after the France international helped his side to a 1-0 win at Granada on Saturday.
An injury and suspension hit Atletico side rarely looked control of the game during the 90 minutes against the relegation strugglers, but Griezmann headed in Koke's chipped cross with just seven minutes left to secure a valuable three points in the race for Champions League qualification.
"It was a tough game, very difficult," Simeone told his post-match news conference. "We had some chances in the first half, and some offsides wrongly called against us.
"The second half was blow for blow. In the end Griezmann's commitment did it for us."
Griezmann has now scored four of Atletico's five goals across their last three games, and has more headed goals [four] than any other player in La Liga.
"[Griezmann] has good timing," Simeone said. "Being good in the air is not about height, but about timing. And he is a specialist.
"But we are content with the work of all the players. It was a difficult game, without [Kevin] Gameiro, [Fernando] Torres and Gabi ... the team, responded again."
The result meant that Atletico closed to within five points of third placed Sevilla's surprise home draw with Leganes earlier on Saturday, with Jorge Sampaoli's tiring side due at the Estadio Vicente Calderon next weekend after both teams play midweek Champions League fixtures.
"It would not be good for us to look at Sevilla, who are challenging for the title," Simeone said. "We want to secure fourth place.
"[Fifth placed] Real Sociedad are going very well. We are better looking at what we are doing ourselves. Five points are still a lot."
However Atletico midfielder Koke, who provided the cross for Griezmann's winner in a cleverly worked short corner, admitted on BeIn afterwards that his team had their eyes fixed on third spot, which would ensure automatic UCL qualification for next term in their new stadium.
"We know that all games now are finals," Koke said. "We have to win to catch up with those teams above us.
"We were playing against a team playing for their lives. Both teams were very intense. We found the goal at a set-piece. We are very happy with the result.
"We are closer to our objective now which is third place, but we must keep going like this."
The Spain international said the focus for now though must be on Wednesday's Champions League last 16 second leg at home to Bayer Leverkusen, and his team could not be complacent even with their 4-2 advantage from the first game in Germany last month.
"We have a very important game on Wednesday," Koke said. "We want to make the quarterfinals. We have a good advantage, but we cannot be complacent.
"We know that in football it is possible they can come back."