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.