Valencia briefly held top-spot in La Liga after their 3-0 win against Racing Santander but Real Madrid’s 5-1 thrashing of Sevilla allowed them to regain their place at the head of the table.
Two goals from Vicente to add to an early own-goal by Ayoze gave the points to Valencia, allowing them leapfrog the reining champions – albeit for a few hours.
Their lead was later relinquished after Real Madrid’s 5-1 win against Sevilla. Goals from Ronaldo(2), Solari, Salgado and Zidane brought an easy victory and kept Madrid one-point clear of Valencia.
Barcelona were unable to make up any ground on the top two after their game with Real Betis was called off due to rain. The in-form Catalans remain on 55 points, nine points behind Madrid.
Deportivo la Coruna moved into third-place after narrowly beating Real Sociedad 2-1. Pandiani’s early strike for Deportivo was cancelled out by Nihat just before half-time and only a 90th minute own-goal from Rekarte secured the win.
Celta Vigo remain second from bottom, four points from safety, after losing 2-0 to relegation rivals, Real Zaragoza.
Mallorca in seventeenth position are now just two points ahead of Espanyol after a dismal 2-0 defeat to bottom-placed Real Murcia. Goals from Jose Luis Accriari and Michel gave real Murcia only their third win of the season.
