14.12.2010 11:36

Spanish League Round Up Week 15

Nick Bedson

The teams trying to keep up with Barca and Madrid again slipped up this weekend with Villarreal, Espanyol and Valencia all failing to win, whilst at the bottom, Almeria and Racing got great wins.

Real Madrid duly saw off bottom club Zaragoza 1-3, with goals from Ozil, Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo, his 18th of the campaign, to stay two points behind Barca, who are now a full 10 points ahead of third placed Villarreal and 15 above fifth spot Valencia.

Challengers falter

Following Villarreal’s defeat to Getafe on Saturday night, Espanyol had the chance to move into third if they could win in Bilbao, but despite going ahead through Osvaldo during a great first half performance, the Catalans were unable to deal with Bilbao’s second half comeback, going down 2-1 as Llorente and David Lopez gave them the win. Espanyol boss Pochettino declared after the game: “it’s incredible that we didn’t come away with the three points, we played some great football”. With one eye on Saturday’s derby against Barca, he also warned: “this defeat won’t damage our morale, in fact we will come out of it even stronger”.

Valencia fail to put Osasuna away

Espanyol stay in fourth, on 28 points, three ahead of Valencia who were held 3-3 by Osasuna at La Mestalla on Monday night. Soldado, Stankavicius and Arduriz had put Valencia 3-1 up at half time, but Osasuna fought back to take a point with second half goals from Flano and Aranda. Atletico Madrid moved to within two points of Valencia after beating Deportivo 2-0 on Saturday with two goals from Aguero, whilst Getafe’s win over Villarreal means they sit in seventh, level on points with Atletico. A 92nd minute goal from Oscar Serrano for Racing sank Mallorca at the ONO Stadium. The 0-1 defeat set back the Islanders’ European challenge ahead of next weekend’s visit to Villarreal and they are now down in 10th, a point behind Bilbao and Real Sociedad, though also a point ahead of the plummeting Seville, who lost their fourth league game on the run at home to Almeria on Saturday.

Zaragoza, Sporting and Malaga in bottom three

That win for Almeria lifted them out of the bottom three, where Zaragoza, Sporting and Malaga now occupy the relegation spots. Sporting could only draw 1-1 at home to Levante and are now 19th on 11 points, two behind Malaga who were thrashed 4-1 by Hercules, for whom Trezeguet was again on target, scoring his eighth of the season.