Madrid’s win over Malaga keeps them seven points behind Barça, whilst Valencia’s defeat leaves them 13 points further back, with Villarreal just a point behind in 4th. Zaragoza were the only team at the bottom to win.
Llevant maintain momentum
Llevant have now lost just one of their last six games and the point in Donosti takes them to 13th
spot on 28 points, level with Deportivo who recorded yet another goalless draw, their sixth in La
Liga so far this season, at Osasuna, two points behind them in 16th. Bottom side Almeria were
unable to see off Racing, who played with 10 men for much of the game after Henrique was shown a
red early on in the 1-1 draw.
Madrid replied to Barça’s excellent win over Valencia on Wednesday night by demolishing
Malaga on Pellegrini’s return to the Bernabeu, whilst neighbours Atletico Madrid and Getafe
could only draw. Villarreal got back into winning ways, beating Hercules, but Bilbao’s
failure to beat Zaragoza means they’ve lost three on the run, with the points for
Aguirre’s team lifting them out of the bottom three.
Weakened Malaga cave in at Bernabeu
The pressure was again on Real Madrid after last weekend’s slip up in La Coruña and
they responded with a 7-0 thrashing over a much weakened Malaga, whose boss Manuel Pellegrini
admitted: “we didn’t come here looking for points –I wanted to reserve players
for the Osasuna game(this weekend) and we rested six players”. Just to make things even
easier for Mourinho’s side, Gaspar was sent off for the visitors who played out the game with
just 9 men after Cafa had been injured. Cristiano Ronaldo limped off with a hamstring injury after
scoring his third goal of the night.
Villarreal back to winning ways
Villarreal put an end to their four game run without a win by beating Hercules 1-0 thanks to
a Rossi goal –his 13th of the campaign and are now a clear 10 points ahead of fifth pace
Espanyol and just a point behind Valencia. For Hercules it was their third game on the run without
a goal- they’ve scored in just one of their last eight, in the only win since early January
against Zaragoza, and now find themselves fourth from bottom just a point above the drop zone.
Bilbao missed the chance to leapfrog Espanyol into fifth when they went down 2-1 to Zaragoza
despite going ahead with, inevitably, a Llorente strike. The Basque centre forward has now scored
15 La Liga goals, but Wednesday night’s wasn’t enough as Bilbao slumped to their third
defeat on the row. The win lifts Zaragoza up to 15th on 27 points ahead of Saturday’s game at
the Nou Camp.
Atletico’s poor run continues
Neither Atletico Madrid nor Real Sociedad were able to keep up with the UEFA spot
challengers, with Atletico drawing 1-1 in Getafe and Real being held by the same score by Llevant
at Anoeta. Atletico Madrid have now won just one in their last seven games and sit in eighth place,
level on points with Real and 15 points off the Champions League spots.