La Liga Preview

La Liga Preview

Valencia moved up to third in the Primera Division after an action-packed 2-1 win at Athletic Bilbao on Sunday night.

Los Che trailed to a 58th-minute goal from 16-year-old substitute Iker Muniain but hit back through Spain striker David Villa.

Athletic then had Lertxundi Koikili sent-off for collecting two yellow cards and the visitors took advantage with full-back Jeremy Mathieu firing home a loose ball.

The 10 men could have salvaged a draw late on but David Lopez's 87th-minute penalty came back off the post.

Sixth-placed Mallorca kept up their highly impressive 100 per cent home record in some style as they demolished Real Zaragoza 4-1 at Son Moix.

Gregorio Manzano's side missed early chances before finally going ahead through Aritz Aduriz seven minutes before the break.

And the floodgates opened late in the match, when Aduriz added a second before late strikes from Mario Suarez and Alhassane Keita sealed a memorable victory.

Ander Herrera grabbed a late consolation for the visitors in the closing stages.

Struggling Tenerife came from behind to record a precious 2-1 win against an out-of-sorts Sporting Gijon.

Sporting went ahead in only the fourth minute through Diego Castro and seemed to consolidate well after the goal.

However, Tenerife hit back through Ricardo and Nino in the second half to collect all three points and send Sporting back to Asturias empty-handed.

Espanyol were on the end of a four-goal thrashing for the second weekend in a row as they collapsed to a miserable defeat at home to struggling Racing Santander.

Henrique put the visitors in front two minutes into the second period.

And Racing duly went two up five minutes later through Sergio Canales.

Mohamed Tchite made it three from the penalty spot after 67 minutes and Canales rounded off the scoring shortly afterwards to complete a fantastic evening for the Cantabrians, and condemn the Catalans to their worst defeat so far at their new Cornella-El Prat stadium.

Spain full-back Joan Capdevila struck twice, including an 86th-minute winner, as nine-man Villarreal twice hit back from being behind to beat Getafe 3-2.

Capdevila's first cancelled out Pedro Leon's opener only for a Roberto Soldado penalty to restore Getafe's lead. The spot-kick was awarded for a foul by Ruben Cani on Javi Casquero - an offence for which he saw a red card.

The 10 men levelled again through the returning Santi Cazorla and Capdevila grabbed a late winner.

Villarreal finished the game with nine men after the late dismissal of Angel Lopez.

Relegation-threatened Malaga claimed a valuable 1-1 draw with Osasuna.

Massoud Shojaei scored from six yards after 47 minutes as Osasuna took the lead despite being second best in the first half.

Sergio Duda struck the woodwork as Malaga sought a reply, which came when Antonio Apono fired in from a set-piece after 82 minutes.

On Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo scored before being sent off as Real Madrid bounced back from last weekend's defeat to Barcelona to beat Almeria 4-2 in an incident-packed match.

Ronaldo, starting his first home match in over two months due to his ankle injury, also created a goal and missed a penalty as Madrid made hard work of seeing off lowly Almeria.

There appeared little sign of the drama to come as Manuel Pellegrini's men ended an impressive first-half display 1-0 up thanks to Sergio Ramos' header.

But Almeria, who did not have a shot in anger in the opening period, stunned their hosts with two goals in three minutes from Fernando Soriano and Kalu Uche to lead 2-1.

That sparked the home side into action, and Madrid responded with goals from Gonzalo Higuain, Karim Benzema - who netted after Ronaldo's penalty had been saved - and then Ronaldo in the final 17 minutes.

The former Manchester United man was booked for taking his shirt off to celebrate that goal, and that proved costly as four minutes later he was handed his marching orders after picking up a second yellow following a tussle with Michel.

His dismissal did not cost Madrid dear in this match though as they held on to make it seven home wins from seven and keep the pressure on leaders Barca.

However, Real's great rivals did not flinch in their match later in the evening as Lionel Messi struck twice to give them a hard-fought 3-1 win at in-form Deportivo La Coruna.

The Galicians had won eight of their 12 league matches prior to the game and proved hard to break down.

Messi put Barca in front after 26 minutes, but Deportivo hit back later in the first half through Adrian Lopez.

The game could have gone either way after that, but Barca's superior quality eventually told as Messi headed the Catalans back in front with 10 minutes remaining.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic rounded off an important victory for the visitors with a third goal right at the death.

Barca's win restored their five-point advantage of Real, although they have played a game more.

Third-placed Sevilla saw their title hopes suffer a setback as they were held to a draw by 10-man Valladolid.

Manolo Jimenez's side went behind after 33 minutes when Angola striker Manucho gave the visitors a surprise lead.

But Valladolid found themselves a man down five minutes later after Borja Fernandez was sent off for a cynical lunge on Diego Perotti.

Things then went from bad to worse for Jose Luis Mendilibar's side as they conceded a penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Luis Fabiano converted and it looked as if it would be one-way traffic in the second half.

But the Andalusians failed to make their numerical advantage count despite creating numerous chances and, for the second weekend running, were unable to make up any ground on the top two.

Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero were on target for Atletico Madrid as they beat Xerez 2-0.

Forlan converted a cross from Jose Antonio Reyes for the opener after 29 minutes and strike partner Aguero struck the second after 65 minutes as Atletico secured a second successive victory.