Barcelona stay six points clear of arch-rivals Real Madrid in La Liga after a 2-1 win at lowly Getafe this weekend.
Madrid bounced back from the 3-0 Nou Camp derby defeat week last week with a 5-0 thrashing of Levante though. At the other end of the table, Numancia lifted themselves off the bottom with a 2-1 win over Zaragoza.
Rafael Marquez Alvarez and Deco were on target for Barca in the first half as they got back to winning ways after their disappointing midweek draw with Celtic in the Champions League. Gica Craioveanu pulled one back for Getafe, who have beaten Valencia and Athletico Bilbao in recent weeks, but was then dismissed with seven minutes from time.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, were in rampant form at the Bernabeu against Levante.
Ronaldo got Madrid off the mark just before half time and three goals in five second half minutes from the Brazillian again, Figo and Beckham wrapped the game up. Michael Owen came off the bench just long enough to score his fifth league goal since joining Madrid.
The other club from Barcelona, Espanyol, stayed just two points behind Madrid in third spot with a hard fought 2-1 victory over Athletico Madrid. Nineteen-year-old Dani doubled his season’s league goal tally with two second half strikes to set up the win. Nano’s first of the season was not enough for the away team.
Ex-Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld was at fault for both of Valencia’s goals as Mallorca went down 2-0. Westerveld misjudged corner kicks either side of half time to allow Emiliano Moretti and then Ruben Baraja to score.
Real Betis leapt five places to fifth with their third win in a row. The team from Sevilla are now unbeaten in the last ten and were two up at half time against Villareal with two goals from Ricardo Oliveira. The Brazillian has now scored eight league goals in 12 appearances this season. Antonia Guayre pulled one back early in the second half for Villareal but Betis held on for the 2-1 victory.
Also climbing the table were Osasuna who moved up four places to seventh with an emphatic 4-1 defeat of Sevilla. The game was well balanced at half time, Inaki’s 20th minute opener having been cancelled out by Sevilla’s Carlitos.
Cameroon’s Piere Achile Webo put the home side 2-1 ahead after 56 minutes and when Javi Navarro was sent off for a second bookable offence 13 minutes later the game was over. Osasusa’s Richard Jaxier Morales and Moha each scored in the last five minutes to give the Basque team an excellent win.
Ten yellow cards were awarded in a stormy Deportivo-Real Sociedad game. The home side raced into a two-goal lead within 27 minutes – Alberto Luque and Pedro Munitis scoring for Deportivo. Turkish international Nihat got one back just before the interval though and Darko Kovacevic salvaged a point with another after 51 minutes. Valeri Karpin received his marching orders for Sociedad with just 4 minutes remaining.
The fastest goal of the La Liga weekend was Santiago Ezquerro’s 6th minute strike for Athletico Bilbao. They went on to beat Racing Santander 3-0 with further goals from Carlos Gupegi and Ismael Urzaiz. The third was Urzaiz’s eigth league goal of the season.
Malaga have now gone seven matches without a win and have slipped to third from bottom. They went down again at the weekend, this time 2-0 at home to fellow strugglers Albacete. The Frenchman Laurent Viaoud scored his first of the season to give the away side the lead after just eight minutes. Momo wrapped up the points with a second just after half time.
In the final game of the weekend Numancia overcame Zaragoza 2-1 to confine Mallorca to bottom spot in the table. Two first half goals from the Argentine Aldo Arcangel Osario saw off Zaragoza despite fellow Argentine Gabriel Milito’s first of the season.
