La Liga round-up

Leaders Real Madrid seemed to have everything under control thanks to Sneijder’s 42nd minute goal at their away match in Mallorca. However things changed when the home side’s Navarro took a dive in anticipation of a Sergio Ramos challenge which hoodwinked the ref and saw the departure of the Madrid defender. Mallorca were level within minutes and the game became a real nail biter as Madrid hung on for a 1 - 1 draw. Second placed Villarreal missed their chance of closing the gap at the top when they were beaten 2 - 0 by sixth placed Sevilla and what’s more Barcelona really fluffed their chances to catch up as well with an amazing goalless result at home to Getafe. In what proved to be a really frustrating game for both sides. Barça players saw all their goalbound efforts thwarted either by some brave defender or the goal posts whilst Getafe were denied at least two penalties with the most obvious being in the seventh minute when Milito unceremoniously dragged De la Red to the ground by his hair!

Unexpected win

Even though last weekend’s results meant that none of the top seven clubs changed places, fifth placed Racing Santander slipped three points adrift of Atlético Madrid a place above them when they were unexpectedly beaten 1 - 3 by lowly Deportivo de la Coruña. Atlético on the other hand boosted their chances of a top four finish when they came out as winners in a nine goal thriller against Almeria beating them 6 - 3. Two goals and one player down after all of four minutes Almeria fought back well to be level by the quarter hour. But they were 4 - 3 down and another player less before the half time whistle. Having two fellows missing for the second half proved to be far too much for the visitor and Atlético dominated the remaining 45 minutes securing their victory with two further goals.

Although finalists in this season’s King’s Cup Valencia’s pretty awful League season continued as they suffered a 1 - 0 loss to second bottom Murcia. This was their fourteenth defeat so far and equals Zaragoza who went down 0 - 3 at home to a resurgent Real Betis. As a result Zaragoza have dropped into the bottom three, leapfrogged by Recreativo who won their vital relegation struggle 0 -1 at Osasuna.