FOOTBALL
Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid both made up ground on the leaders after Barça’s defeat in Donosti, with Simeone’s side beating Levante 2-0 and Real demolishing Valencia 0-5
At the bottom, Osasuna got three vital points by beating Deportivo, who are now bottom, whilst Mallorca were the only other team in the bottom seven who failed to take a point
Atletico Madrid maintained their 100% home record with a comfortable enough 2-0 win over Levante, with goals from Adrian and Koke, though Falcao limped off near the hour mark and will probably miss the next three games. Atletico are now eight points behind Barça and still seven ahead of neighbours Real, who stuck five past Valencia in the first half in Mestalla, with Ronaldo and Di Maria both scoring twice to add to Higuain’s opener. The second half brought no more goals, but further bad news for Valverde’s side when Soldado limped off. Valencia’s main source of goals will definitely miss this week’s Cup second leg against Madrid and possibly next weekend’s league game away to Deportivo.
Betis and Malaga drop points
Betis and Malaga stay in fourth and fifth, though neither of them were able to win what had looked to be relatively easy home games. Betis were held 1-1 by Bilbao on Monday night, despite going one up with a third minute penalty from Ruben Castro – his twelfth goal of the season. The Basques then drew level through Arduriz – also scoring his 12th of the campaign – and but for some great saves from Adrian in the Betis goal, they could have taken all three points. On Saturday, Malaga went one up against Celta through a first half goal from Demichellis, but the Galicians took only their fourth point on the road with an equaliser from Augusto.
Deportivo and Mallorca slip deeper into trouble
Celta’s point didn’t stop them from slipping into fourth from bottom on 19 points, with many of the teams around them going one better. Granada won 2-0 against Rayo to move up to 16th with 20 points, claiming their first home win in four months, whilst Espanyol’s good run under Aguirre continued with a 3-2 win over Mallorca to rise to 15th, on 21 points. Caparros’ side have slipped to second from bottom with just 17 points, one more than Deportivo and one less than Osasuna, who beat them 2-1 on Sunday to climb off the bottom spot ahead of Sunday’s visit to the Camp Nou.
In the weekend’s two other games, Unai Emery made his league debut with a 1-1 draw at Getafe, whilst Valladolid saw off Zaragoza 2-0 in a game marked by injuries, with Valladolid’s German star Ebert pulling up after 20 minutes and then Zaragoza’s Loovens and Apoño also being forced off before the break.