Barcelona 2-0 Athletic
Deportivo 5-3 Racing
Getafe 1-2 Malaga
Mallorca 3-3 Real Betis
Numancia 2-1 Valencia
Osasuna 1-2 Sporting
Real Madrid 1-1 Atletico Madrid
Recreativo 2-3 Valladolid
Sevilla 2-1 Almeria
Villarreal 1-0 Espanyol
Well, perhaps a semblance of normality returns to La Liga after the last couple of weeks of madness. Barcelona got back to winning ways with a thoroughly dominant performance, overwhelming Athletic 2-0 at the Camp Nou. Goals from Busquets and Messi in the first half should have been followed up with more after the break, only for the Blaugrauna’s finishing to desert them. Still, they looked much better against an overwhelmed Athletic, who are now utterly stuck in mid-table.
The game of the week was the Derbi Madrileño at the Bernabau, and what a game it was. Plenty of chances for both sides, some truly terrible defending (you expected something else?) and some excellent counter-attacking football from the visitors. Atleti took the lead in the first half after snuffing out a Real attack to stream down the other end, Aguero feeding Forlan who finished beyond Casillas. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored his fourth goal of his Real Madrid career to level things up, although Kun Aguero in particular was guilty of extraordinary (and uncharacteristic) profligacy in his efforts to put the rojiblancos back in front. In the end, Juande Ramos will have been much the happier of the two coaches.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Villarreal beat Espanyol 1-0 but it was a far from convincing display, even after they took an early lead through Fuentes’s header. Los Pericos proved their own worst enemy, spurning a number of opportunities before Luis Garcia – you know, the striker without a goal in six months, that Luis Garcia – struck the crossbar from the penalty spot, which would have given Pochettino’s men a deserved point. As it is, Espanyol’s mini-revival is well and truly over, one win in 17 for them and bottom, 7 points adrift.
Numancia were unexpected beneficiaries of Garcia’s misery, beating Valencia 2-1 the very weekend I decided to declare their relegation a certainty. After Vicente had given Los Che the lead, Aranda levelled matters before an excellent Barkero free-kick (where would they be without him?) sealed a sensational win for the Sorian strugglers that means they are now 5 points off safety. Osasuna remain third bottom after a 2-1 home defeat to Sporting Gijon, who arrested their recent slide thanks to first half goals from Barral and Castro. Elsewhere, Malaga continued their European charge by moving into 5th with a win at Getafe in the weekend’s final fixture. Two of their stars, Eliseu and Bahia, scored before half time with Cosmin Contra pulling one back for the hosts. Each side finished with 10 men – Soldado seeing red for the hosts, Cuadrado following suit for Tapia’s men.
Deportivo leapfrogged both Atletico and Valencia into the final European spot after a pulsating 5-3 win at the Riazor over Racing Santander. Jonathan Pereira put Racing ahead after just a minute and Nikola Zigic restored their lead before the break after Juan Rodriguez had levelled. But Riki scored twice in nine minutes, either side of an Angel Lafita strike, and Joan Verdu made it 5-2 to Depor in the 68th minute. Jesus Berrocal scored Racing's third 11 minutes from time, but it could not prevent defeat, meaning it is six games without a win for the Cantabrians
Valladolid are three points behind Valencia after their 3-2 victory over Recreativo, which was achieved despite ending the game with nine men, with Henok Goitom scoring twice;Real Mallorca scored three times in 11 minutes as they came from 3-0 down to snatch a point at home to Real Betis. Gonzalo Castro scored twice and Pierre Webo to stun Betis. Mark Gonzalez, Mehmet Aurelio and Arzu had earlier put the visitors in a seemingly unassailable position.
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