25.01.2011 11:48

Spanish League Round Up Week 20

Nick Bedson

A narrow 1-0 win over Mallorca on Sunday kept Madrid just 4 points behind Barça at the top of the table, whilst Espanyol got another good away win in Getafe. At the bottom, Zaragoza move out of the relegation spots and Almeria finally won at home.

With all the top five winning in this weekend’s games, the big losers were Atletico Madrid, Getafe and Mallorca, whose defeats were heavy blows to their European hopes for next season. Athletic Bilbao took advantage to move up to sixth, a distant five points adrift of Espanyol.

Benzema strike saves Madrid

The much questioned, not least by boss Jose Mourinho, Karim Benzema was on target for an uninspired Real Madrid as they struggled to overcome Mallorca. Mourinho’s attempts to rest Xabi Alonso and Ozil nearly backfired as his team failed to trouble Mallorca before the break and he was forced to bring on his big names in the second half. Even then it needed a fantastic last minute stop from Casillas to guarantee the points. Villarreal also kept up their winning ways, seeing off Real Sociedad at El Madrigal thanks to a brace from Rossi, after the Basques had taken the lead. Villarreal have now won 10 of their 11 home games.

Valencia see off brave Malaga

Valencia had taken third spot overnight, following a crazy 4-3 win over Malaga on Saturday night. A 90th minute strike from Aduriz gave Valencia the points, but the real story was the way that Malaga, despite finishing the game with 9 men following red cards for Demischellis(on 17 minutes) and his fellow centre back Rosario (on 67), as well as coach Pellegrini, showed a ferocious determination to attack that nearly got them a point. Malaga were twice ahead thanks to two goals from Rondon, but Mata, Soldado and Banega made it 3-2, before Baptista opened his account on 79 minutes, ahead of Arduriz’s late winner.

Espanyol win on the road again

Espanyol again won on the road with an impressive performance at Getafe to follow up last week’s win against Seville. Miku sent Getafe one up to at half time, but Espanyol hit back with three goals in 10 minutes from Luis Garcia, Callejon and Sergio Garcia. Getafe have now lost their last three home games and their push for a European spot has weakened as they have slipped to 10th, 10 points behind Espanyol, who in contrast have lifted themselves after losing in Valencia at the start of the month and won their last three. Bilbao’s 3-0 win over Hercules on Monday (Javier Martinez, Llorente and Munain) took them up into sixth and the Basques have now taken 14 from the last 18 points in play. Atletico Mdarid drop back to seventh after a poor performance in Gijon, which saw them give away an almost comical goal to lose 1-0 ahead of next weekend’s clash with Bilbao at the Vicente Calderon.

Sporting climb up to 15th

Sporting’s win means they are unbeaten in their last three and they have climbed up to 15th on 19 points since they slumped to bottom spot at the start of the year. Zaragoza also recorded a second win on the row, as they beat a disappointing Deportivo 1-0 to move out of the bottom three into 16th, level on points with Sporting, whilst Levant slipped into bottom place after Seville thrashed them 4-1 on Saturday. Luis Fabiano became only the third player to score a hat trick in La Liga this season (after Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo) as Seville cruised to an easy win ahead of their Cup semi-final against Real Madrid this week and move up to 8th, a point behind Atletico Madrid.